All it took to draw attention to the wretched condition of elevators in Brooklyn public housing projects was the death of a little boy. Today, the Daily News reports that Brooklyn’s public housing elevators are some of the city’s worst:

They break down constantly, jam between floors and don’t get fixed for days and even weeks. Others are filled with graffiti and the sour stench of dried-up urine. Beaten-down, broken elevators at public housing developments across Brooklyn are among the worst in the city, found a Daily News survey of 36 projects. The Sumner Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Tilden Houses in Brownsville and Walt Whitman Houses in downtown Brooklyn ranked among the worst in the borough, together chalking up a frightening 1,590 elevator outages in fiscal 2008…A News survey of elevators at public housing complexes throughout Brooklyn found that the Sumner Houses was the worst, with 506 outages and a 13.3-hour delay for repairs – but others were nearly as bad, according to the numbers. The notorious Ingersoll Houses in downtown Brooklyn were nearly as bad as other complexes, with 580 outages chalked up among 53 elevators and repair delays of 17.9 hours.

One couple in their 80s, one of whom has had a stroke, reports taking the elevator in the building next door and walking across the roof to get to their apartment.