Judge Halts Move Of East Village Shelter

A Manhattan judge temporarily blocked New York City from moving its men’s homeless intake center to 8 East 3rd Street in the East Village. (gothamist.com) State Supreme Court Justice Sabrina Kraus issued the temporary restraining order on Wednesday, April 22, after East Village residents and business owners sued to stop an opening that had been scheduled for May 1. The next hearing is set for May 7. (gothamist.com) The city announced on March 5 that it would close the Bellevue men’s shelter and intake site on East 30th Street because the 1931 building was in “severe disrepair.” City officials said about 250 men were being moved out and that men’s intake would shift to 8 East 3rd Street, while adult-family intake would move to 333 Bowery. (nyc.gov) An intake center is the front door to the shelter system: single adult men go there to be assessed and assigned a bed. New York City’s own Access NYC page lists the Bellevue site as the men’s intake center before May 1, 2026, and 8 East 3rd Street as the site starting May 1. (access.nyc.gov) The lawsuit argues the city rushed the relocation and skipped required public review and notice. Residents told NY1 the administration used an emergency executive order to bypass community-comment and environmental-review steps for what one organizer called “the front door” of the five-borough shelter system. (ny1.com) Those review fights are tied to New York City’s “fair share” rules, which were created under Charter Sections 203 and 204 to spread city facilities more evenly and require advance planning and community consultation. The Department of City Planning’s guide says agencies are supposed to weigh neighborhood impacts and publish planned sitings and closures in the Citywide Statement of Needs. (nyc.gov) The city says the move is necessary because Bellevue is no longer a safe place to keep operating intake. City Hall spokesperson Sneha Choudhary told Gothamist that keeping people in “a space that is falling apart” would fail both shelter residents and staff, and said intake for single men will stay at Bellevue for now while the case proceeds. (gothamist.com) Some advocates backed the need to replace Bellevue but not every detail of the new plan. Gothamist reported that the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless said 8 East 3rd Street had previously served as an intake site, while also raising concerns about whether the building would comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act. (gothamist.com) For now, the ruling does not kill the move; it freezes the opening date while the court weighs whether the city can relocate intake without the usual siting process. That leaves Bellevue, a building the city says is badly deteriorated, operating at least until the May 7 court date. (gothamist.com)