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Across the twelve NYCHA developments in Mott Haven, Melrose and Port Morris, elevators broke down 274 times in September. That was slightly better than August, when they broke down 290 times.
All told, since January there have been nearly 2,700 unplanned outages in local NYCHA buildings since September 2024, according to data kept by the New York City Housing Authority.
Believe it or not, that’s an improvement.
“From January to October 2024, NYCHA has seen 5,143 fewer unplanned elevator outages compared to the same time period in 2023,” Andrew Sklar, NYCHA’s deputy press secretary said in an email. “Our maintenance efforts have both prolonged elevator lifespan and led to a significant drop in mechanical downtime,” he said, explaining that a shift in how NYCHA’s elevator services and repair department operates has allowed technicians to focus on preventative maintenance.
Still, elevator outages and long waits for repairs have become the norm for residents, despite the reduction in outages over the years.
“Everyday it’s like a mind of its own,” said Chucky, a resident of the Patterson Houses in Mott Haven, who declined to give his last name. The frequent elevator problems affect pregnant women, seniors and people with mobility problems the most, trapping some on high floors.
While NYCHA struggles to keep up with an unending rotation of patchwork repairs on aging elevators, it is in the midst of a capital project that’s meant to provide a more comprehensive fix: the installation of new elevators for many developments.
On January 31, 2019, HUD and the Southern District of New York reached an agreement with NYCHA and the city to address and resolve NYCHA’s alleged failure to meet federal health and safety standards. The agreement requires NYCHA to meet federal living standards, implement leadership changes, and operate under the oversight of a federal monitor to ensure compliance to improve the quality of life for tenants.
The HUD agreement allocated $2.2 billion for maintenance capital improvement across NYCHA’s 2,400 buildings over a span of nine years.
Elevators were among the priorities, along with heating system upgrades and roofing repairs. But while elevator replacement work has been underway at some of the South Bronx buildings since 2019, residents in others have no idea when—or whether—they’ll get new elevators.
While the Adams, Mitchel, Morrisania Air Rights, and McKinley developments—are all receiving funding to replace old elevators with new ones, eight other developments in the South Bronx—Saint Mary’s Park, Moore, Mill Brook, Patterson, Melrose, Jackson, Forest, and Mott Haven—have not yet received funding for capital improvements for new elevators. These elevators are expected to be distributed capital investment within the next five years, according to NYCHA’s capital tracker.
Over 360,000 New Yorkers call a NYCHA development home. That’s more than the populations of New Orleans, Pittsburgh or St. Louis. Malfunctioning elevators that slow daily commutes, leave residents hauling strollers, groceries and weary knees up many flights of stairs —or trap the mobility-impaired in upper level apartments—have plagued the developments for decades.
The Adams, Morrisania Air Rights, Mitchel and McKinley Houses are all supposed to get new elevators in some of their buildings. Since 2019, the NYCHA’s Capital Project and Needs Tracker reports than an estimated budget of $15,953,425 was funded for Adams Houses, $20,363,918 for Morrisania Air Rights Houses, $20,278,325 for Mitchel Houses, and $9,669,786 for McKinley Houses for elevator upgrades.
In the several John Adams Houses, replacement work has been underway for more than two years, since May 2022. NYCHA’s Capital Project and Needs Tracker estimates the elevator project in Adams will be completed by May 2025. While one elevator is out of service, the other remains running. However, even the functioning elevator continues to experience outages where residents are sometimes stuck between floors, forcing them to take the stairs, or wait in the lobby until elevator repairs are complete.
Beatrice Martinez, who lives on a high floor of Saint Mary’s Park Houses remembers climbing dark staircases.
“There have been several times that they had issues, especially four years ago when my husband was hospitalized,” she said. “I would go visit him in the evenings. I would have to go up the stairs three times during that night, it was after eight, and there was no elevator service.”
The building at 424 Morris Avenue at Patterson Houses has only one elevator, so when it breaks down, residents are left with no choice but to use the stairs.
Broken elevators effectively trap some residents in their apartments. “When the elevator shuts down on a Friday night, we have to wait until Monday morning,” said Ammerim Correa, a mother living with disabilities in Patterson Houses.
And the arrival of the repair workers is unpredictable, anywhere from 45 minutes to 10 hours on a weekday and longer on the weekend, said Maliek Benbow, who lives at Moore Houses.
Broken or malfunctioning elevators have long been a source of grief for NYCHA residents, according to Andrew Block, chief of staff for State Senator Julia Salazar (D-18) a member on the Housing, Construction, and Community Development Committee, whose office has received many complaints from tenants across the boroughs. NYCHA has a “backlog of $40 billion in capital improvements,” he said, “Our office receives reports of elevators malfunctioning with an unsettling frequency, and we advocate their repair directly to NYCHA. Clearly, however, truly remediating this problem requires reinvestment in the facilities.”
The elevator at 720 Westchester Ave in the John Adams development often fails to stop at the lobby. Residents have to hike up a flight of stairs to get on the elevator and to their homes, several said.
Tiewonka Brown, a resident in John Adams at 721 Tinton Avenue, lives on the 14th floor and rides a mobility scooter. While construction of the elevator she uses is now complete, there were many years when breakdowns would effectively trap Brown in her apartment, she said. “Considering the old one where it would be like an everyday problem where it would get stuck between floors.”
NYCHA prioritizes elevator modernization on a series of factors, said Sklar, with upgrades for developments determined based on “asset age, work order history, and mechanical downtime,”
With a life expectancy of approximately 25 years, elevators aging infrastructure and frequent outages continues to be a foremost concern for tenants all across NYCHA.
A map shows unplanned elevator outages in NYCHA Developments in the South Bronx from January to September 2024 interactive map.
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