NYCHA made me do it!

That’s the sorry excuse a man arrested for allegedly beating and robbing an 88-year-old Brooklyn granny on Christmas Day gave for the vile crime.

In an exclusive jailhouse interview Sunday, career criminal Marc Malone admitted to The Post that he targeted elderly victim Lyubov Faynshteyn’s Coney Island public housing building — because he heard its front-door lock was busted.

“How did I know that door was unlocked? Somebody told me, ‘Hey Marc, you need some money? Go to that building, the front door is open,’” the hulking 50-year-old suspect said from the Brooklyn House of Detention.

The victim and other residents at Haber Houses III have said NYCHA allowed the front door to their building to remain broken for years, forcing them to leave it propped open to get in and out.

“It’s really something, that someone told him that the door is open,” Faynshteyn’s disgusted niece, Marina Fedorovsky, told The Post.

NYCHA has said it fixed the building door Wednesday — the day after Faynshteyn was attacked.

After waltzing through the building’s entrance early Dec. 25, Malone threw open Faynshteyn’s apartment door — which she had just unlocked, expecting a home health aide’s arrival — and punched the octogenarian so hard, he fractured her cheekbone as he swiped jewelry, police said.

He was on the lam for several days before being caught.

Malone denied to The Post that he hit Faynshteyn and then bizarrely griped about how unsafe his victim was in her own apartment.

“She was all alone in there, her door was open. It’s not safe,” he coldly professed.

Malone was charged with nine counts of assault, burglary, robbery and possessing stolen property.

“He needs to be punished very severely. I wish American jails were stricter, like Russian jails,” Fedorovsky fumed. “You go there once, and you never want to return. In America, they have their dietary needs taken care of, they can watch television.”

Meanwhile, Malone whined he is getting jail treatment a la Russia — thanks to Faynshteyn’s countrymen.

“The [Russian inmates] told me: ‘Apologize to that lady. Apologize for what you did, or we’re going to kill you,’ ” he said. “I can’t sleep, I can’t eat — I’m scared they’re gonna kill me in here, gonna poison my food.”

Malone claimed that he was sorry for the crime, saying his own mother used to live in Faynshteyn’s building.

“Tell that lady I’m sorry,” Malone said of Faynshteyn as a tear streamed from his left eye. “I didn’t know she was 88 years old. It could have been my mother.”

But Faynshteyn’s niece wasn’t buying it.

“It’s nonsense. He is just trying to cut down his sentence, since he’s been caught,” she said of Malone.

NYCHA did not respond to a request for comment.