Asked recently to describe the condition of PHA elevators, one state official just shook his head.
"Worse than anything you could imagine," he said softly.
PHA officials say that is all about to change. A major replacement and renovation program is under way at five complexes, and, if additional federal money is forthcoming, an additional $20 million worth of elevator renovations and repairs will be done at eight complexes. Approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is expected late this month.
"Generally," PHA Executive Director Gregory A. Kern said during a recent interview, "we are just where we wanted to be (in the improvement and replacement process)."
Under Kern's direction, the PHA also has embarked on an effort to improve and expand its elevator-maintenance staff. All current staffers, he said, have attended a training program run by the New York City Housing Authority.
Ultimately, Kern said, the staff will take over all elevator-maintenance work, much of which is now done under contract with a private firm. The PHA has come under continuing criticism from federal auditors, who contend that the maintenance work could be done more cheaply and efficiently by in-house staff.
The executive director said other steps to improve security in the high- rises would keep down elevator vandalism. The new elevators themselves will include vandal-resistant features, he said.
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Despite all that, some long-term PHA tenants have a different view. For them, the current flurry of activity is yet another phase in an endless cycle: accidents and deaths, followed by outrage, followed by repairs, followed by vandalism and disrepair and finally more accidents.
"The last time they fixed them, they spent a lot of money . . . but they haven't been right since. Whatever they did did no good," said Louise Hanible, a longtime resident at King Plaza in South Philadelphia, adding that the elevators were "just horrible."
