Brooklyn woman lives in fear after she was attacked in darkened hallway outside her NYCHA Apartment

When shadows lengthen as the sun sets in the Red Hook Houses, Wilma Matthews, a 59-year-old bus matron who lives alone, begins to be afraid.

That’s because she was violently attacked just outside her apartment door in a hallway darkened for more than a year because the city Housing Authority has repeatedly declined to fix broken lights there.

Her attacker smashed her head against a cement wall and tried to drag her into her own apartment before being scared off by a barking dog.

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Do you know how scary that is?” she said, bursting into tears. “You can’t even go out your own door. And it’s all because of a light!”

Matthews first complained to the city Housing Authority more than a year ago, telling it that two hallway lights outside the door to her apartment were out.

She lives on the top floor, and a light in the stairway next to her door that leads to the roof is out, as is another near the garbage chute.

It’s a perfect scenario for criminals — the roof landing is pitch dark, and the lock on the door leading to the roof no longer functions.

Though crime has declined in the Brooklyn project in the last five years, Red Hook Houses has been the scene of several shootings this summer.

In the interest of not becoming a victim herself, Matthews — a tenant for 34 years — began calling NYCHA in August 2011. She was given a ticket, but no set date for a promised repair.

As the months ticked by, Matthews called repeatedly. By Aug. 1, she had amassed 10 repair tickets and no repair.