KIPS BAY — The city will install security cameras at a troubled homeless shelter that was the scene of a grisly murder last month after admitting that the facility had never had a functioning camera system, according to a Department of Homeless Services spokeswoman.
The 30th Street Men’s Shelter, a city-operated homeless shelter at First Avenue and 30th Street, will get 230 new security cameras, according to an aide to Councilwoman Rosie Mendez.
A DHS spokeswoman confirmed that the shelter, which is also known as the Bellevue Men's Shelter, would be getting new cameras but did not divulge any more details about the number of cameras or cost.
The agency went under fire in April after one resident fatally slashed the throat of his roommate, leaving the 56-year-old victim to die in the blood-soaked and ransacked room.
In the wake of the murder, residents told DNAinfo New York the shelter was rife with lackadaisical staff and an utter lack of cameras, adding they felt unsafe but had nowhere else to go.
Police later arrested the accused murderer, William Smith, 53, after he slashed a cab driver in an attempted robbery in Queens.
A DHS spokeswoman at the time confirmed that the facility had never had security cameras, despite demands from the state and from Comptroller Scott Stringer that cameras be installed at all city shelters.
In a scathing report released in December, Stringer blasted the city for failing to keep shelter residents safe, saying that a lack of cameras violated state law mandating adequate security measures such as surveillance systems.
