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NYC moves homeless men to East Village shelter after neighbors fail to stop move
By
Karen Yi
Published Jun 12, 2026
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Karen Yi / Gothamist
By
Karen Yi
Published Jun 12, 2026
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The city has begun transferring homeless New Yorkers to a new intake center in the East Village a day after a state judge allowed the Mamdani administration to relocate the center from Midtown.
Officials with the Department of Social Services said the city moved about 25 men who remained at the massive men’s shelter on 30th Street, known as Bellevue, to the East Village on Thursday night.
City officials said they wanted to relocate the remaining beds for safety reasons, moving quickly after a judge dismissed a lawsuit from East Village neighbors who sued to block intake services from relocating to 8 East Third St.
"For years, conditions at Bellevue had been allowed to deteriorate, making this transition both necessary and urgent,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement. "Our focus remains on treating every person who enters the shelter system with the dignity they deserve while building a system that works better for both clients and staff."
The neighbors said they plan to appeal.
For decades, the Bellevue shelter has served as the main intake facility for single men who need to ask for a shelter bed. Earlier this year, the Mamdani administration ordered the 400,000 square foot building closed, pointing to the building’s aging conditions and areas that were cordoned off to keep people safe.
The city emptied out most of the facility in March but kept a few beds for people arriving at Bellevue after 11 p.m. in need a place to sleep for the night.
While intake services were supposed to relocate to an existing shelter in the East Village in May, a judge ordered a delay while she reviewed the suit against the city.
Now, intake services for men will relocate from Bellevue to 8 East Third St. and for families without dependent children to 333 Bowery on Aug. 1, city officials said. A small team of city workers will remain at Bellevue in case homeless New Yorkers arrive there seeking help, they added.
Bellevue’s closure of its 850 beds has caused a ripple effect across the city, prompting the Mamdani administration to open new beds elsewhere and reconfigure plans for existing facilities. The administration plans to open two temporary hotel shelters in Crown Heights and Flatbush to make up for the beds.
City officials said their goal is to build better shelters for all homeless New Yorkers and get out of facilities such as Bellevue that don’t meet high standards.
Dave Giffen, executive director for Coalition for the Homeless, said he was worried about people being moved across the system unnecessarily, from overnight beds where they usually stay for a night, to assessment beds where they stay a few weeks before being moved to a longer term placement.
“We want to not have people just being shuttled around, and get people as quickly as possible in the shelter where they’re going to be staying,” he said.
The city will plan a community briefing before relocating intake services later this summer, officials said.
Construction at the East Village shelter is ongoing to make the building comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and accessible to all homeless men. But a DSS spokesperson said it will have no impact on the men who are sleeping there overnight, and there will be a separate entrance for them.
“We will continue to maintain open lines of communication with community stakeholders and coordinate closely with them to ensure that this facility is operated safely and that any impact to the community is mitigated,” said DSS Commissioner Erin Dalton.
Tagged
homelessness
housing
new york
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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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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