Francisca Pena, 54, has taken it upon herself to seek relief from the authorities on behalf of inhabitants.
"We have exhausted all avenues and we have had no response," she told AFP.
Pena said she sleeps fully dressed in case she has to "run out" in the middle of the night.
It has happened several times, she recounted, that residents rush out into the street after hearing a suspicious "noise."
"I have dark circles under my eyes, I don't sleep, I live waiting for a section (of the building) to come off," said Luvia Diaz, a 50-year-old social worker who lives on the top floor of "Edificio Cuba" with her partner, three daughters and a grandson.
Earlier this month, rains caused a piece of her bedroom ceiling to fall down, onto an empty bed.
"If my daughter had been sleeping there, it would have been a tragedy," she said.
Another resident, who would only identify herself as "Pumpa," was there when a part of the building came down 29 years ago, when she was just two.
A piece of ceiling hit her on the head, and Pumpa had to undergo complicated cranial reconstruction surgery, she told AFP while cleaning her apartment.
"I am afraid to live here... The second time I won't be saved," she said.
