City Councilmember (C.D.14) Pierina Sanchez joined the The Legal Aid Society, and tenants gathered outside City Hall on April 25 to announce new legislation in response to the partial building collapse that occurred at 1915 Billingsley Terrace in Morris Heights on Dec. 11, 2023, forcing over 150 tenants to lose their homes, as reported.

 

The new bill, The Billingsley Structural Integrity Act, is intended to establish stricter regulations for building safety and landlord accountability. Sanchez said The Billingsley Structural Integrity Act would establish a risk-based inspection program to identify structurally hazardous buildings, mandate timely landlord violation correction, limit non-emergency work permits to buildings with outstanding violations, and implement escalating civil penalties for a failure to correct violations.

 

“It’s time to hold landlords accountable and ensure that our city’s infrastructure is safe for all residents,” said Sanchez. “This is why we’re strengthening enforcement through The Billingsley Structural Integrity Act.”

Sanchez said nearly 170 people who lived at 1915 Billingsley Terrace were displaced from their homes following the partial collapse and the building had numerous repair issues, including elevator outages, illegal gas ovens in the basement, missing sidewalk sheds, and illegal conversions. Miraculously, there were no fatalities as a result of the partial collapse.as reported at the time.

 

“This building had a history of issues,” said Sanchez. “There were warning signs here. HPD [NYC Department of Housing, Preservation and Development] had issued over 350 violations in this building; 83 alone were in 2023. Many of these were Class C and Class B violations, which means that they were dangerous to the health and safety of the residents.”

 

Soon after the collapse, The Legal Aid Society and tenants of the building filed a lawsuit against the building’s landlord in an effort to speed up the recovery process.

Adriene Holder, chief attorney at The Legal Aid Society, also spoke during the rally at City Hall, saying, “We’re currently in court suing the landlords to address outstanding violations to rebuild the collapsed sectioned of the building and to restore units to their original layouts and square footage.”

 

She continued, “The partial collapse at 1915 Billinsley Terrace was avoidable and we, as a city, must strive to never allow this to happen again.” Meanwhile, Juan Ricart, who lived on the first floor of 1915 Billingsley Terrace since 1986, said of the partial collapse, “Half of my apartment was wiped out with all the debris that came from the sixth floor.”

 

Ricart said he was displaced as a result of the collapse and forced to live in a shelter for three months. “From Dec. 11 to March 15, I was eating like the birds,” he said.

On the same day as Sanchez announced the new legislation, The Billingsley Structural Integrity Act was introduced in the City Council and was referred to its Committee on Housing and Buildings.