WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — Lack of security at a NYCHA building for seniors where a woman was attacked earlier this month is creating an unsafe situation by allowing outsiders to enter the building to use drugs, drink alcohol and urinate, residents claim.
There are no security cameras at the Thurgood Marshall Plaza for Seniors, a public housing building at 1970 Amsterdam Ave., and tenants said many of the doors leading into the residence are broken.
The situation allows trespassers to come and go as they please — leaving everything from urine and feces to condoms and empty bottles in their wake, residents said.
“There is a steady stream of alcoholics, homeless and drug addicts in and out of this building,” said a woman who has lived in the building for 15 years, but declined to reveal her name out of fear of repercussions from building management.
The residence's main door is often broken, allowing anyone who pulls hard enough to gain access, tenants said. In addition, a seperate side door and an interior door leading from the basement-level senior center to the elevators are also both often broken or left open, residents said.
Because of the lack of security, residents find their stairwells, elevators and common areas littered with garbage — or worse, they said.
"Every morning in the elevator, you can tell people have been urinating there," said Wilmot Joseph, 75, who's lived in the building for 15 years. "And it's people who don't live here."
Residents also reported seeing drug use in the building by non-residents.
One 91-year-old resident, who also declined to give her name, said she's scared to use any common areas in the building because she never knows who she'll encounter.
"It's terrible," she said.
Security concerns were recently heightened after a 73-year-old woman was attacked by another woman smoking a cigarette in the lobby of the building on June 2.
Tenants said they have called police over the years to report incidents such as non-residents having loud arguments or physical fights in the lobby.
Residents have also repeatedly reached out to NYCHA, with one longtime tenant estimating she has called or emailed the agency 50 times over the past year to complain.
Tenants' association president Henry Coaxum said he started emailing and calling NYCHA about the front entrance six months ago, after learning from one of the building's managers that the door had been broken more than 150 times in the past four years.
"They just figure if it breaks, we'll fix it. If it breaks again, we'll fix it again," he said. "No — let's look at getting a new system in place."
Coaxum said he would also like NYCHA to install cameras in the building's common areas.
"If we had cameras we could see who is breaking that door," he said.
Coaxum said he started asking about cameras when he became president almost three years ago, claiming the process for securing them was not made clear.
First he was told by NYCHA that funding had already been secured and that the building had to get on a waiting list, he said. Later, he was told that he would have to try to get funds through an elected official.
Coaxum recently reached out to the office of Assemblyman Keith Wright, who sent an email to NYCHA on the building's behalf earlier this week.
Wright's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Coaxum did produce a copy of the email, which mentioned both the broken doors and the need for cameras.
Wherever the funding comes from, Coaxum said the process should have been less confusing.
"NYCHA knows that these senior buildings need cameras," he said. "They should be sending me information about who I need to contact, but that's not how it's done."
Only 28 out of 55 NYCHA senior developments are currenlty equipped with cameras, the authority said.
A NYCHA spokeswoman said the agency was not aware of any pending requests for cameras for this building, but noted that it is working on other improvements.
"We are making repairs to a door recently vandalized at the development and ensuring security protocols are followed at the community center," said the spokeswoman, who added that the agency was only made aware of the broken side door last Thursday.
NYCHA did not immediately respond to inquiries regarding the building's front door.
The spokeswoman said that there have been only two incident reports filed at the building from the beginning of 2014 to now.
One of those incidents was the attack on the 73-year-old woman, who police said was hit in the face for telling a woman not to enter the building with a lit cigarette. The other incident involved an authorized visitor who was reported in the building, she said.
In addition, there have been no major crimes reported at the building this year, the spokeswoman said.
"All residents, including the seniors at Thurgood Marshall Plaza, deserve a safe place to call home," she added. "We will continue to work closely with residents and the NYPD to improve the safety and security at NYCHA communities."
