BY ROSE ADAMS
Three Coney Island public
housing complexes are getting
19 new elevators over the next
fi ve years as part of a $450 million
effort to revamp the city’s
public housing stock — and
residents say the repairs are a
long time coming.
“They’re always a problem,”
said Malik Moody, who
lives in Coney Island Houses
on 28th Street by Mermaid Avenue,
which will get six new elevators.
“Sh– be skipping and
sometimes it takes you to the
roof and you have to take it
back down.”
The remaining 13 elevator
upgrades will service the
Unity Houses on Surf Avenue
and W. 20th Street, and the
Carey Gardens on Surf Avenue
and W. 24th Street.
The project — which will
be completely funded by the
state — will dedicate $7.6 million
for the fi xes to the three
locations in the People’s Playground,
COURIER LIFE, N 36 OVEMBER 15-21, 2019
where residents have
endured skipped fl oors, faulty
elevator buttons, and service
outages for years.
“They jump, skip fl oors,
and get stuck. I’ve been stuck
twice,” said Jasmine Freeman
Jones, a resident of the
Coney Island Houses, where
elevators shut down twice per
month on average.
Meanwhile, elevators
at Unity Houses and Carey
Gardens go out about once a
month, affecting disabled and
elderly residents — who make
up between 20 and 28 percent
of the buildings’ population,
said the local state assemblywoman.
“It’s a burden,” said Mathylde
Frontus (D–Coney Island).
“I see a lot of elevator
complaints.”
The new elevators won’t
be completed at the Coney Island
Houses until Aug. of 2022,
while the Unity Houses and
Carey Gardens won’t see new
elevators until the beginning
of 2023 — 30 years after the
current, dilapidated elevators
were installed, according to
Housing Authority data.
A spokesman for the federal
agency overseeing the project
promised that construction
workers will not renovate all
the elevators at the same time,
leaving some still-functioning
lifts at all times — but many
residents are dreading the
coming construction.
“That’s bad. That’s frustrating,”
said Freeman-Jones
about the length of the project.
Local Councilman Mark
Treyger claimed the years-long
time horizon is common for
public housing projects, which
are notoriously over schedule
and over budget — like the recent
Jasmine Freeman-Jones, a resident of Coney Island Houses on 28th
Street, said she has been stuck in the elevator twice. Photo by Rose Adams
renovation to a Surfside
Community Gardens, which
took more than seven years to
complete.
“I do not understand why it
will take so long,” Treyger said
about the estimated timeframe
for the new elevators. “I think
it took a year to build the Empire
State Building.”
Treyger also called for
stricter oversight of the project
to ensure the repairs don’t
drag on.
“The Housing Authority
needs to be held to account for
using this money wisely and in
a timely fashion,” he said.
New York City Housing Authority
representatives did not
respond to multiple requests
for comment by press time.
—Additional reporting by
Joe Hiti.
Getting a lift
City to replace Coney housing complexes’
wonky elevators — in four years!
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