New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been sued by a group of Manhattan residents for his decision to relocate a large portion of the city's homeless population to the East Village, a neighborhood that voted for him by a 42-point margin.
On April 19, seven East Village residents filed the lawsuit in New York County Supreme Court in a bid to stop Mamdani from moving the city's main homeless intake center from Kips Bay to their neighborhood.
The city is in the process of closing a 250-bed facility in Kips Bay near Bellevue Hospital because of its 'deteriorating' conditions.
By May 1, much of the services offered for homeless individuals at that facility were set to be moved to 8 East 3rd Street, a 175-bed transitional residential housing facility currently operated by Project Renewal.
This building would have become the main temporary shelter for homeless adult men, who typically stay for 24 to 48 hours at most.
One of the petitioners, Niki Donohue, said she has volunteered at the Bellevue Men's Shelter about a dozen times. She claimed that during the summer, men who are 'distressed, unstable, and suffering from mental illness and addiction' form long lines as they seek shelter.
The lawsuit argued that what goes on at the Bellevue facility will now plague the East Village.
'It is well established that intake facilities experience heightened risks of crime, drug use, loitering, public indecency, and other safety concerns,' the suit said.
A group of East Village residents sued New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to stop his plan to make a shelter in their neighborhood the main intake center for homeless adult men
The plaintiffs worry that there will be large lines of homeless men in their neighborhood if Mamdani's plan is allowed to go through (Pictured: Homeless migrants wait in line to receive food and clothing in Tompkins Square Park, which is in the East Village, on January 20, 2024)
Ramon Rivera, who was a resident of the Bellevue facility, went on a deadly stabbing spree in December 2024, killing three people, according to prosecutors.
Conservative politicians were quick to point out that people in the East Village should have expected policies like this when they voted for Mamdani.
'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,' said Michael Henry, a former New York attorney general candidate.
'Not shocked,' Senator Rick Scott of Florida wrote on social media.
The East Village group argued that the city did not provide adequate notice for residents, while also circumventing the public review process by improperly relying on a 2022 emergency executive order meant to deal with the influx of asylum seekers.
Steven A. Engel, the lawyer for the East Village residents, 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.
Following arguments from the plaintiffs and the defendants, Justice Sabrina B. Kraus temporarily blocked the city from implementing its plan while the lawsuit proceeds.
Mamdani announced the closure of the Bellevue Men's Facility (pictured) early last month. The 250-bed facility is in a state of disrepair and the city planned to move its residents to 8 East 3rd Street, a 175-bed transitional residential housing facility in the East Village
Ramon Rivera, who was a resident of the Bellevue facility, went on a deadly stabbing spree in December 2024, killing three people, according to prosecutors
'This is an important start, and we appreciate the judge's fast action on this crucially important matter,' Trisha Goff, a longtime neighborhood resident who was part of the lawsuit, told the Gothamist.
'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.'
A City Hall spokesperson told PIX11 that the 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,' the spokesperson said. 'We look forward to addressing the immediate need to relocate shelter intake with the Court on May 7.'
The city had also announced that a second shelter would be opened on May 1 at 333 Bowery Street for homeless families without minor children.
Justice Kraus did not specifically address the fate of that shelter in her order.