A group of Manhattan residents has filed a lawsuit against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, aiming to halt his decision to relocate a significant portion of the city's homeless population to the East Village. The neighborhood voted for Mamdani by a 42-point margin. On April 19, seven East Village residents submitted the legal challenge in New York County Supreme Court to prevent the mayor from moving the city's primary homeless intake center from Kips Bay to their community.
The city is currently closing a 250-bed facility in Kips Bay near Bellevue Hospital due to its deteriorating conditions. By May 1, many services for homeless individuals at that facility were slated to be transferred to 8 East 3rd Street, a 175-bed transitional residential housing facility operated by Project Renewal. This location would become the main temporary shelter for homeless adult men, typically staying for 24 to 48 hours.
One petitioner, Niki Donohue, who volunteered at the Bellevue Men's Shelter about a dozen times, claimed that during summer, men who are distressed, unstable, and suffering from mental illness and addiction form long lines seeking shelter. The lawsuit argues that the issues at the Bellevue facility will now plague the East Village. It states, 'It is well established that intake facilities experience heightened risks of crime, drug use, loitering, public indecency, and other safety concerns.'
The plaintiffs worry about large lines of homeless men in their neighborhood if Mamdani's plan proceeds. Ramon Rivera, a former resident of the Bellevue facility, went on a deadly stabbing spree in December 2024, killing three people, according to prosecutors. Conservative politicians criticized the East Village's support for Mamdani. Michael Henry, a former New York attorney general candidate, said, 'No one is more not in my backyard than white progressives. This community voted for Mamdani in a landslide but don't want to live with the consequences.' Senator Rick Scott of Florida wrote on social media, 'Not shocked.'
The East Village group argues that the city did not provide adequate notice and circumvented the public review process by improperly relying on a 2022 emergency executive order meant for asylum seekers. Steven A. Engel, the residents' lawyer, said in court on Wednesday that the Kips Bay facility has been deteriorating for years and does not constitute an emergency. 'The question here is, why are you rushing it and putting it into a facility which is demonstrably not suitable for handling this?' Engel said, according to The New York Times.
After arguments from both sides, Justice Sabrina B. Kraus temporarily blocked the city from implementing its plan while the lawsuit proceeds. Trisha Goff, a longtime resident involved in the lawsuit, told Gothamist, 'This is an important start, and we appreciate the judge's fast action. 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.'
A City Hall spokesperson told PIX11 that conditions at the Bellevue shelter have been unacceptable for years. 'Leaving people in a space that is falling apart is a failure of our responsibility to care for our fellow New Yorkers. We look forward to addressing the immediate need to relocate shelter intake with the Court on May 7.' The city also announced a second shelter would open on May 1 at 333 Bowery Street for homeless families without minor children. Justice Kraus did not specifically address that shelter in her order.
