Boy's Fatal Fall Down Elevator Shaft

A History of Problems, in a Time of Dwindling Budgets
By RAY RIVERA
An elevator at a Brooklyn apartment building where a 5-year-old boy died Tuesday when he fell down the shaft had been scheduled to be modernized in 2004, but the work was twice deferred because of federal cutbacks, according to the New York City Housing Authority, the building’s landlord.

It is unknown whether the delays contributed to the accident, which is under investigation, but they underscored what housing advocates and union officials say are growing maintenance concerns at the housing authority, the city’s largest landlord, as it struggles to close large budget gaps amid shrinking government aid.

The elevator involved in the death of the boy, Jacob Neuman, which jammed on Tuesday between the 10th and 11th floors, stalled between the same floors a little more than a month ago, on July 11, said Israel Rosenberg, president of the tenants’ association at the building’s complex, the Taylor-Wythe Houses.

Howard Marder, a Housing Authority spokesman, said the two elevators in the building had stalled five times in the last six months. Housing authority inspectors rated the building’s elevators “unsatisfactory” in at least 17 of 21 inspections from 2004 through 2007, according to records filed by the authority with the Department of Buildings. And the building has been the subject of at least a half-dozen complaints of elevator breakdowns since 2004, records show.

Authority officials say the unsatisfactory ratings were mostly for minor maintenance issues like broken light bulbs or oil leaks in elevator motor compartments. None of the problems were deemed hazardous or warranted a violation, Mr. Marder said.

Residents say the problems run deeper than city records indicate. The elevators in the 12-story building where the boy died, 70 Clymer Street in South Williamsburg, stall often, according to residents, who say they resort to using the stairs or calling firefighters for help.

Housing advocates and union officials say the problems are indicative of the authority’s widespread maintenance problems in the face of dwindling government aid. The authority oversees 406,000 residents in 2,600 buildings with more than 3,300 elevators, and it has made deep cuts in spending and its work force in recent years to contend with budget gaps. It faces a $170 million deficit in its operating budget this year.

From 2001 to 2008, it lost a total of $611 million in federal funds for its operating budget, and $450 million more for capital projects, including elevator replacements.

“This is a terrible tragedy,” said Gregory Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, which represents housing authority workers. “We’re not going to say that if Nycha was funded properly this would have been prevented. What we will say is that the federal government has not lived up to its promise to fund public housing.”

Authority officials acknowledge the budget problems but say they have not led to reductions in elevator maintenance or inspections staff. In fact, the number of mechanics and staff members has remained largely stable over that period.

But the cuts have delayed elevator overhauls. The building’s elevators were scheduled to be modernized in 2004 at a cost of $3.4 million, according to authority officials, but because of cuts in federal aid, the authority has twice deferred rehabilitation, which is now scheduled for next year. The elevators were installed in 1970, before the complex was finished in 1974, and they were last modernized in 1986, officials said.

Housing authority officials say modernizations for other elevators have also been delayed, though they could not say Tuesday for how long. “Would it have made a difference?” Mr. Marder said. “It might have and it might not have, because these are machines, and machines often break down. They’re fallible.”

According to the authority, the number of elevator breakdowns in buildings it owns fell to 25,936 in the first six months of this year from 27,358 in the first half of last year, a 5 percent reduction.

In a continuing survey, 49.1 percent of housing authority residents rated elevator services as poor or bad, according to Community Voices Heard, an advocacy group made up mostly of public housing tenants. Nearly 44 percent said they thought overall maintenance conditions had declined in the last five years.

The Department of Buildings, under criticism for its enforcement of elevator regulations, has been cracking down on private landlords. As part of that effort, it began posting the names of the 10 landlords with the worst records of elevator violations on its Web site. The department does not oversee the authority, which conducts its own inspections.

The authority was criticized last year after a 47-year-old Brooklyn woman with asthma died while trying to walk up 10 floors to her Bushwick Houses apartment after waiting in vain for elevator repairmen.

Agnes Rivera, a resident of the Wagner Houses in East Harlem, said a neighbor who suffered a heart attack last year died when paramedics taking her to a hospital got stuck in the elevator. “They unjammed the door, but it was too late,” said Ms. Rivera, a housing advocate with Concerned Voices.

Daryl Khan contributed reporting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/nyregion/20elevators.html?ref=nyregion&pagewanted=print