Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 6
Morris Heights, Bronx: The tenants of a building that partially collapsed in the Bronx have filed a lawsuit to force the building’s landlords to complete the repairs needed to lift a vacate order.
Some tenants say they have been out their homes since a corner of the building on Billingsley Terrace in Morris Heights came crashing down on December 11, 2023.
The lawsuit, filed with the help from the Legal Aid Society, seeks to force the landlords to rebuild the collapsed section of the building and restore units to their original layouts and square footage.
“We are also alleging harassment,” said Zoe Kheyman with the Legal Aid Society. “These owners are forcing rent-stabilized tenants to vacate their homes and leave their communities through illegal means.”
The tenants say the rest of building is in a state of disrepair. They claim they are constantly faced problems including no gas, no heat, no hot water, rat and roach infestations, dust and other hazardous violations, many of which were already occurring years before the collapse.
“1915 Billingsley’s disaster did not start on December 11th,” said New York City Councilmember Pierina Sanchez. “It had started years and years ago and there are hundreds of violations and hundreds more of complaints.”
Sanchez chairs the Council’s committee on housing and buildings. She wants to see a faster response to tenant complaints and expedited repairs of hazardous housing violations, along with greater accountability and harsher punishments for negligent landlords. Tenants are asking the court to intervene on their behalf.
Furniture, art, and belongings all had to be left behind by residents of the building when it partially collapsed in December.
More than 100 people were unexpectedly uprooted. Many have been living in homeless shelters ever since.
Source: ABC7 News
