Local, state and federal elected officials gathered at the site of a partially collapsed Bronx apartment building Friday morning to demand better oversight of the city’s older buildings.

Demolition continues after the building, located at 1915 Billingsley Terrace, came crashing down in the middle of the afternoon Monday.

“Had it been at night, the outcome would have been totally different,” said Congressman Adriano Espaillat.

Espaillat was flanked by other elected officials in Morris Heights. They agreed that many of the city’s older buildings are compromised and have structural issues that the city must find resources for to address. Particularly, those that offer affordable housing.

“We in New York City face not only a housing affordability crisis but also a housing quality crisis. We have an aging housing stock,” said Congressman Richie Torres.

While no one was killed in the collapse, a few people suffered minor injuries.

“Our districts have far too many buildings that are structurally compromised, and the city must do better. The Department of Buildings must be better to inform us of which buildings are structurally compromised that will put families’ lives in danger,” Espaillat said.

The engineer, hired by the building’s owner, deemed the building’s facade to be structurally unsafe in 2020 and then again a year later. Repairs on that work began in July 2023.

On Thursday, NY1 spoke to the engineer overseeing the facade work. He said it was not the facade that caused the collapse, but a structural failure on the first floor. NY1 also learned that the facade work was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, who chairs the City Council’s Housing and Buildings Committee, said there were indicators of major issues before the collapse.

“This building had 179 HBD violations,” Sanchez said. “They had seven DOB violations.”

Several agencies have opened investigations into the collapse, including the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.

More than 170 people who lived in the building, including 44 children, remain displaced. The city’s Office of Emergency Management said tenants in the south wing and some in the north wing were escorted into the building to retrieve their belongings. Tenants closer to the collapse location will only be allowed once it’s safe.

“As the work continues, the city will make an assessment of the building’s active vacate order to see if and when we allow people to re-vacate the building and whether it will be suitable for that,” said Office of Emergency Management commissioner Zachary Iscol.

Elected officials at the press conference are also calling on the federal government to provide more funding for old buildings. They said the federal government is the largest funder of affordable housing.

The OED also said crews have been working to shore up the collapsed portion of the building and adding safety measures, such as extra lighting, to make the building safe enough for tenants to re-enter.