Judge Pauses East Village Shelter Move

A Manhattan judge has temporarily stopped New York City from moving its men’s homeless intake center to the East Village. (gothamist.com) State Supreme Court Judge Sabrina Kraus barred the city from opening intake services at 8 East 3rd Street on May 1 and set a May 7 hearing on the residents’ challenge. (amny.com) The lawsuit was filed April 20 by East Village residents and business owners who said Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration rushed the plan, skipped public notice, and avoided environmental and land-use review by using an emergency order. (ny1.com) The city announced in March that it would shut the Bellevue men’s shelter and intake complex on East 30th Street because the building was deteriorating and had been deemed unsafe by experts. About 250 men who had been staying there were already moved to other sites. (nyc.gov) (gothamist.com) Under that plan, single men seeking a shelter bed were supposed to start reporting to 8 East 3rd Street on May 1, while adult families without minor children were to be sent to 333 Bowery. (access.nyc.gov) The case is about more than one address because the Bellevue site has long been the front door to the shelter system for single men in Manhattan. Moving intake changes where people first enter the system, where outreach workers direct them, and where neighborhood impacts are concentrated. (gothamist.com) (ny1.com) Residents behind the suit said they are not trying to ban shelters from the neighborhood; Caleb Berger of V.O.I.C.E. told NY1 the East Village already lives with shelters and “the residents are our neighbors.” He said the dispute is over moving “the entire intake operation” onto a narrow residential block with little notice. (ny1.com) City Hall said intake for single men will continue at Bellevue for now while the case proceeds. A spokesperson said leaving people in a building that is “falling apart” would fail the city’s duty to care for homeless New Yorkers. (gothamist.com) Homeless-rights groups split from the neighborhood plaintiffs but also criticized the city’s rollout. The Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless said 8 East 3rd Street has historically been used as a shelter and even as an intake center, while warning that the city still has to meet disability-access rules and the Butler settlement before opening it. (coalitionforthehomeless.org) For now, the move is frozen, construction at the site can continue, and the judge will hear arguments on May 7 over whether the city can reopen the East Village building as Manhattan’s new intake point. (gothamist.com)