NYC already spent $1.3M on controversial new East Village homeless shelter - as neighbors desperately try to stop it

A proposed 117-bed intake center for men on East Third Street would replace the shuttered Bellevue homeless shelter. East Village residents packed a Manhattan courtroom to challenge the plan and argued the city moved adult male intake to one heavily residential location without following legal requirements. Residents said they were blindsided by a March announcement that hundreds of homeless men would be relocated after Bellevue closed. Their attorney cited city records showing $1.3 million spent on renovations and described the work as a major capital project with major community impacts. A judge delayed the center’s opening while the case proceeds, and a hearing followed to address the dispute.

"By fiat, City Hall has decided that we're going to move all adult male intake for the shelter system to one location in the East Village on a narrow street, heavily residential, [and] follow none of legal requirements to get there,"

"The supposedly minor renovations have already cost the city $1.3 million,"

"This is anything but minor. This is a major capital project... a major change in use with enormous impacts on the community."

"The group of residents said they were blindsided by Mamdani's March announcement that hundreds of homeless men would be relocated to their neighborhood after the closure of the notorious Bellevue shelter on 30th Street."

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