Judge halts plan to move men’s homeless intake shelter to East Village after lawsuit
Streetview of 8 East Third Street © 2022 Google Maps
A state judge has paused Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to relocate a men’s homeless intake shelter from the shuttered Bellevue facility in Kips Bay to the East Village after residents filed a lawsuit. Judge Sabrina Kraus issued the order on Wednesday, blocking the city from opening the intake center at 8 East Third Street on May 1 as originally planned and setting a May 7 court date for the administration and plaintiffs. Last month, Mamdani announced plans to close the Bellevue shelter, citing decades of neglect and deteriorating conditions, and to relocate its roughly 250 residents to existing shelters in the East Village.
Once the city’s largest men’s homeless shelter, the Bellevue facility on East 30th Street in Kips Bay served as an entry point for single men and adult families seeking emergency shelter in the city. The building, converted from Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric ward in 1984, can house up to 850 people.
The 1931 structure has long been plagued by fire safety violations, building code issues, and incidents of violence, with portions of the facility cordoned off due to maintenance issues, according to The City.
Efforts to shutter the site date back years. In 2008, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg sought to close the site, and the city’s Economic Development Corporation later proposed converting it into a luxury hotel and conference center, though those plans were eventually abandoned.
At the time, critics opposed relocating the shelter’s intake services to a site in Crown Heights, arguing that most street-homeless individuals live in Manhattan and would be less likely to travel to Brooklyn to seek services, as 6sqft previously reported.
With the shelter now empty, city officials this week gave Gothamist a look inside the dilapidated 9-story structure. The auditorium sits abandoned, with pigeons nesting in the windows, while exposed wiring, pipes, and large portions of the ceiling are missing from the ceiling of the former solarium.
Joseph Piwowarski, associate commissioner of the city’s Department of Design and Construction, told Gothamist that the building’s steam and plumbing systems are well beyond their lifespan and frequently leak. He added that, given the facility’s age, lead and asbestos are likely present throughout the facility.
A spokeswoman for City Hall told the New York Times that conditions at the shelter had been “unacceptable” for years.
“The decision to vacate was necessary for safety, and based on clear expert guidance,” she told the Times. “Now, we have an urgent obligation to act. Transferring shelter intake to 8 East Third Street is critical to ensuring that every New Yorker in need has access to safe, dignified shelter without delay.”
The city has already relocated residents to two shelters in Brooklyn and had planned to move intake services to two existing men’s shelters in the East Village on May 1.
A lawsuit filed Monday by Village Organization for the Integrity of Community Engagement, the group of residents seeking to block that plan, argues the administration has rushed the process without proper review or adequate public notice. The suit also raises concerns about whether the facilities would comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“This is an important start, and we appreciate the judge’s fast action on this crucially important matter,” Trisha Goff, a member of the group and a longtime neighborhood resident, said. “But it is only the beginning. There’s much more work to be done. Now there’s time for due process, to listen to the community, and to find a far better solution to this challenging problem.”
City officials note that both East Village sites have long operated as shelters and substance use treatment programs, run by the nonprofit group Project Renewal. The intake center would include 117 short-term beds for men, who typically stay less than 24 hours.
“Leaving people in a space that is falling apart is a failure of our responsibility to care for our fellow New Yorkers. The decision to vacate was necessary for safety, and based on clear expert guidance,” Sneha Choudhary, a City Hall spokesperson, told Gothamist. “We look forward to addressing the immediate need to relocate shelter intake with the court.”
While the judge’s order halts the relocation of intake services, construction at the site can continue. The next hearing is scheduled for May 7.
The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless issued a joint statement after the court’s ruling, criticizing residents’ opposition as “NIMBYism” while also raising concerns about the site’s accessibility.
“The site at 8 East Third Street has long served as a shelter and previously functioned as a men’s intake center, making its current use consistent with its history. Opposition from some neighbors lacks a good-faith basis and appears to be little more than NIMBYism, given both that history and the urgent need for a functioning, legally compliant shelter intake facility,” the groups said.
They added that they have “serious concerns” about the building’s accessibility and the city’s ability to comply with the Butler settlement, the Americans With Disabilities Act, and other disability protections, particularly given the accelerated timeline.
“The city has committed to making the site fully accessible, and we are actively negotiating the specific steps it will take to operate as an intake facility and to ensure the site is accessible to all single men seeking shelter,” the statement said.
RELATED:
