When it comes to gun violence, residents of many public housing developments are being left behind as the rest of New York City grows safer.
Shootings decreased by about 7% across the city from 2023 to 2024, NYPD data shows. Mayor Eric Adams and top police officials have touted that figure as a sign of improving safety. But over the same period, shootings rose by varying rates at many of the city’s hundreds of public housing developments, indicating low-income New Yorkers continue to bear a disproportionate share of local gun violence, according to a Gothamist analysis.
“I got seniors that don't come out after 5 o'clock at night because [they’re] afraid,” said Serena Chandler, president of the tenant association at the Polo Grounds Towers in Harlem.
The NYPD groups roughly 330 New York City Housing Authority complexes into about 10 zones patrolled by dedicated teams of officers. Year-end NYPD data reveals that gun violence increased at six of these zones last year — and in some cases, the increases occurred despite gun violence declining in the surrounding neighborhoods.
That suggests those developments were shooting hot spots: places where gun violence is concentrated. Gothamist previously found that just 4% of blocks accounted for nearly all of the city’s shootings from January 2020 to June 2024. Experts say public housing sites have long struggled with gun violence because of various factors, such as lack of community investment, poor living conditions, unauthorized occupants with criminal histories, and conflicts between crews from different developments.
The data shows shootings ticked up slightly in some NYCHA zones but dramatically increased in others. For example, Police Service Area 3, which encompasses public housing complexes in Bed-Stuy, Clinton Hill, Fort Greene and Williamsburg, had 27 shootings last year, the most of any zone for the second consecutive year and one more than in 2023. But Police Service Area 2, which covers complexes in Brownsville, Ocean Hill, East New York and northern Crown Heights, had 26 shootings, up from 18 — a 44% jump.
While the total number of shootings across NYCHA declined by about 2% last year, the data shows this was driven by precipitous drops at only a fraction of public housing developments. The NYCHA-wide decrease was also less than the dip in gun violence citywide.
Residents of the complexes where gun violence jumped said the numbers do not reflect their experiences and anxieties.
“ I look at it like we [are] the forgotten ones. There's nobody trying to put into the community to make it a better place,” said Charlotte Williams-Brown, whose son Deon Williams — a 32-year-old father — was gunned down at Bed-Stuy’s Sumner Houses in July. “When you see constantly drug abuse, drug sales, all these things are going on, and then it trickles down … it’s like it goes from one generation to the next generation to the next generation.”
Denise Davis wears a memorial shirt for her son, Shaquille Davis, who police say was fatally shot at the Lafayette Gardens complex in Brooklyn in September.
“Door-breaking is a huge problem”
The four 30-story Polo Grounds Towers, which were once home to a polo field and then a Major League Baseball stadium, overlook the Harlem River from within Police Service Area 6, where shootings spiked 45% last year, according to NYPD data. Meanwhile, shootings decreased in the three NYPD precincts surrounding the zone. Those precincts include parts of northern Harlem, Hamilton Heights and the Upper West Side.
In mid-December, city officials held a safety meeting for Polo Grounds residents in response to the fatal shooting of 47-year-old David Brown, which happened in an apartment on the 14th floor of one of the towers.
Chandler, the tenant association president, attended alongside Daniel Greene, NYCHA’s executive vice president of property management, NYPD Capt. Juan Moran and several dozen concerned residents.
Moran said the shooting was “domestic” in nature and that the suspect, who still had not been caught, did not pose a threat to the rest of the community. Greene assured them that his team would fix building front doors throughout the complex that did not lock — a job that can cost between $25,000 and $90,000, depending on whether the doorframe needs to be replaced, according to the housing authority.
“ This door-breaking is a huge problem. We all need the community to stand up against it,” he said.
But Chandler said city officials’ efforts were only scraping the surface of deeper problems at the 1,600-unit development.
“I don't know what has to happen for public housing for the morale to change,” she said.
“We can blame our landlord [NYCHA] all we want to, but our landlord is not responsible for the way that we as residents behave and treat where we live,” she added.
It’s like it goes from one generation to the next generation to the next.
NYCHA spokesperson Andrew Sklar said in a statement that the agency is committed to providing safe, affordable housing and works closely with police to address residents’ concerns about crime.
Experts say issues like broken doors, vacant apartments and off-lease residents involved in illegal activities can compromise NYCHA residents' safety.
Another issue is a lack of security at developments’ playgrounds and courtyards, which give people space to gather in the open but can be places where conflicts escalate, especially during the warmer months when larger groups congregate and may be drinking alcohol.
Denise Davis’ son Shaquille Davis was shot and killed at one of those playgrounds, just steps from his building at the 900-unit Lafayette Houses complex on the border of Bed-Stuy and Clinton Hill. Police said they still have not made any arrests in the 32-year-old father’s murder on Sept. 30.
Several months later, on Dec. 12, a 29-year-old man and a 26-year-old man were shot and injured on the same playground, according to the NYPD.
“ These kids don’t have no motivation, no programs, nothing to keep them off the street. There's nothing out here,” Denise Davis said, adding that the development’s community center does not do enough for teenagers and younger adults.
A mile-and-a-half away, Charlotte Williams-Brown also voiced frustration about the level of resources her community receives at the 1,100-unit Sumner Houses in Bed-Stuy.
“ It’s the environment, period. Like, there’s really nothing for these kids to do,” she said.
NYCHA's Lafayette Gardens complex is seen in Brooklyn in December 2024.
Tim Vance, whose company Housing Crime Consultants assesses safety at buildings across the city, cautioned that some of the factors behind conflicts at NYCHA sites also exist at private properties.
“The key best practice is to control vacant apartments,” he said. “If there is a residential property that a drug-dealing operation or a gang is eyeing to become established at, if they can get into a vacant apartment and get to stay there without being removed, they’re in a very good position.”
There were about 5,500 vacant units across NYCHA as of December, according to the agency. That was 10% higher than the nearly 5,000 last March, which was up tenfold from 2021, Gothamist previously reported.
There were 71 vacancies at the Polo Grounds as of December 2024, up from just one the year before, NYCHA data shows. Vacancies at Lafayette also rose substantially, from one in December 2023 to 41 in December 2024. Sumner Houses rose from 44 to 55 vacancies over the same period, according to the data.
I don't know what has to happen for public housing for the morale to change.
The playground at Lafayette Gardens where police say Shaquille Davis was fatally shot in September 2024.
Spending priorities
Chandler, the Polo Grounds tenant leader, said housing police were failing to thoroughly patrol her complex.
“They don’t get out of their car unless they’re arresting us for the seven major crimes that they like to tout and put on their dashboard,” she said. “I don’t need you telling me how dangerous it is for me to live there, I need you telling me what you're gonna do to make it safer for me.”
The NYPD did not make a housing police official available for an interview despite repeated requests.
Chandler and other tenants said they wished more funding was allocated toward security guards and cameras as well as efforts to ensure basic rules are followed, so tenants feel a greater sense of both safety and collective responsibility. She criticized NYCHA for recently spending more than $30 million on a vacuum-powered pneumatic garbage system at Polo Grounds to reduce rats and make trash collection easier, saying the system has already broken down at least once.
Charlotte Williams-Brown holds up a memorial collage of her son, Deon Williams, who was shot and killed at the Sumner Houses in July.
The housing authority estimates it has about $78 billion in capital repair needs across its portfolio, which is home to more than 360,000 residents.
“No one is telling [officials] the hard truth: What you're doing is not working, let us go back to the drawing board,” Chandler said. “How about you ask the residents what they want? How about you give them what they're asking for, as opposed to what you think they need?”
Over the past few years, the tenant leader said she has dipped into her own pockets to buy about 50 Ring doorbell cameras for her neighbors. In the wake of the recent violence at Polo Grounds, she said this was one of few things she could do to help give people peace of mind.
“It’s not a lot of money when you care about your neighbors,” she said.
