Turns out this is all highly illegal. Also - the whole refrigerator and leaking roof and unusable fire escape - all illegal.

Nya, nya, LOL, Tol ya so, back when;) I'm wondering about this bankruptcy thing so sudden though. If you guys start a class action suit against him you might get more than if you file small claims. Try to find a contingency fee attorney that won't get a dime if he doen't win the case. But if he really is bankrupt you may be a long while getting anything. There's a hierarchy of who gets money first in these cases.

If the place is auctioned off to pay his debts it would be really great if the tenants could arrange to buy it. Then they could run it themselves and take care of the stuff that needs to be seen to, sort of like a co-op owner thing.

But if the building needs that much repair work done to it. It probably doesn't meet the building codes.
A broken fire escape is definitely in violation of any fire code I've heard of anywhere. Heck you could have reported him for that alone and he would have gotten all kinds of grief over that one. They would have made him repair it or pay some hefty fines.