Pedro Rodriguez was living with his mother while recovering from a recent lung transplant when her apartment building, 1915 Billingsley Terrace in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx, partially collapsed on Dec. 11th and left the family without a home.

The stressful event caused his health to decline further.

“Medication is in the apartment, antibiotics are in the apartment,” he said. “I went five days without taking them so I got sick. I was hospitalized like 3 days ago. I just got out yesterday [Thursday].”

Rodriguez’s family has lived in the apartment for nearly 50 years and spent many holiday seasons there. Other than donations from a GoFundMe fundraiser, he’s not expecting much this holiday. Without their home, this Christmas will be different.

“This is not Christmas,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not Christmas. Not for me, not for the family, not for the rest of our building’s people. This is sad. It’s sad.”

Rodriguez cannot return to his home in Orlando until he recovers, so he’s staying with his brother for now.

“It’s crowded,” Rodriguez said. “I’m sleeping on the couch and the floor right now.”

Several apartments were left exposed after the corner of the building collapsed, including the only home Diana Vargas has ever known. Her nephew and sister were inside at the time of the collapse.

“We didn’t ask for this,” she said. “We didn’t say ‘oh building please fall down.’”

The 36-year-old’s family is now staying in a city-funded shelter. While she is grateful everyone is well, she said being homeless has stolen her holiday cheer.

“We don’t have a place to celebrate like before. We don’t have our home,” Vargas said. “I lost the spirit of the holidays with this whole situation.”

Meanwhile, Rodriguez said more than two dozen of his family members, who also lived in the building, have been displaced. He does not believe they’ll ever return.

“My family doesn’t want to go back,” he said.

Officials with the Department of Buildings said that, following the partial collapse of 1915 Billingsley Terrace, they did an inspection there to determine whether any other part of the building was in danger or had any other hazardous conditions.

They said inspectors did not find any further structural concerns, but did find multiple code violations, largely associated with unpermitted construction and illegal conversions. There were 10 violations in total.

The owner of the building has been ordered to correct the code-violating conditions and file certificates of correction with the DOB, according to the department.

DOB officials said their investigation into the building collapse is being conducted with law enforcement partners and is ongoing.