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Mamdani administration moves 250 homeless men from Midtown shelter to Brooklyn
By
Karen Yi
Published Mar 17, 2026
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Karen Yi / Gothamist
By
Karen Yi
Published Mar 17, 2026
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All 250 homeless men residing inside the massive Midtown shelter set to be shuttered by the Mamdani administration have been relocated to Brooklyn, city officials said.
The Department of Homeless Services said that as of Sunday night, no one was sleeping at the 30th Street site known as Bellevue, though the city is still operating intake services there — the “front door” where single men and families without young children go to ask for a bed. Intake services will be moved to two other Manhattan shelter sites by May 1.
“We believe the sites we have chosen offer comparable and better intake and assessment, accessibility,” Department of Social Services Commissioner Erin Dalton said during a City Council budget hearing on Tuesday.
The Mamdani administration announced the closure of the 400,000 square foot facility earlier this month, citing poor infrastructure that needed wholesale fixes to remain safe for residents. The site was built in 1931 and once housed Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric ward. City officials said new shelters would open in the coming months as the administration looks to better conditions for the 85,000 New Yorkers residing in shelters and convince more than 4,500 people sleeping on the street to come inside.
But some members of the Council expressed concern about whether the new intake locations would maintain existing services; one site operates a low-cost health clinic and drug treatment program, the other offers shelter beds for people with mental illness.
“We want to make sure we are doing everything to keep those services whole,” Councilmember Crystal Hudson, who chairs the general welfare committee, said during the hearing. She said the programs run by Project Renewal “are really unique” and serve New Yorkers with specific needs.
Starting in May, single men will have to ask for shelter at 8 East Third St. and adult families will head to 333 Bowery. Both sites are men’s shelters managed by Project Renewal though the properties are city-owned. The location on Third Street offers 175 beds and offers a substance abuse treatment program and has a federally qualified health clinic, which serves New Yorkers regardless of their ability to pay. The Bowery location has 108 beds for people with mental illness.
City officials said they are determining whether the low-cost clinic can remain at the Third Street location and whether the substance abuse and behavioral health programs will remain where they are or be entirely relocated to other sites.
Advocates for the homeless said some of the men currently sleeping at the two shelter sites are already being transferred elsewhere.
“Certainly this plan is still in flux,” Dalton said. “The important thing to know is that we’re all working really hard to make sure that, where transitions need to be made, they are done safely and with care.”
Tagged
brooklyn
homelessness
manhattan
Karen Yi
Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.
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