New cameras making life better at Hammel Houses

Queens

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Friday, April 4, 2014, 6:43 PM

Farriella, Christie M, Freelance More than four years after Hammel Houses Tenant Association President Peggy Thomas (left) and City Councilman James Sanders, now a State Senator, announced that money was allocated for security cameras at the NYCHA development, the cameras are up and running. Thomas and others said they have seen a difference.

Residents can feel safer now that long-delayed security cameras are up and running at the Hammel Houses in Rockaway.

“It’s night and day there,” said Councilman Donovan Richards (D—Rockaway). “One of my constituents was nearly in tears. She said she can walk outside now.”

State Sen. James Sanders secured more than $ 1 million for the cameras more than four years ago when he was a city councilman, but bureaucratic red tape at the New York City Housing Authority delayed their installation. The last of more than 140 cameras went on line last month, Richards said.

The 14-building Hammel Houses have been marred by crime in recent years.

Peggy Thomas, a longtime resident who heads the tenant association, said the development’s location between Rockaway Beach Blvd. and Beach Channel Drive, makes it an easy getaway route for criminals. The cameras, she noted, are already helping curb those offenses and others.

“It’s cut down on people using the buildings and the elevators as bathrooms,” Thomas said. “But it still hasn’t made people clean up after their dogs.”

Richards said he has allocated about $ 2 million for cameras at Beach 41st St. Houses and Ocean Bay Houses.

lcolangelo@nydailynews.com

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