Judge Rejects Bid To Block Lenox Hill Homeless Shelter From Opening

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A judge has denied an Upper East Side condo board’s attempt to halt the opening of a 200-bed women’s homeless shelter on First Avenue, clearing the way for the project to move forward for now.

On Friday evening, New York County Supreme Court Justice Sabrina Kraus rejected a request by the Board of Managers of Bridge Tower Place Condominium to stop the city from opening the shelter at 1114 First Ave.

With this decision, the temporary restraining order against the homeless shelter's opening has been lifted. However, the decision does not fully end the case, which will continue against the city's Department of Homeless Services.

As the current plans stand, the new shelter would temporarily house up to 200 women, and roughly 78 percent of them would be employed at any given time. The shelter would be classified as a "general population" shelter, meaning that it won't be a shelter for people with drug addiction or mental illness.

In the March 6 lawsuit, the condo board argued that the city failed to properly study the shelter’s impact on the neighborhood and asked the court to block the shelter from opening until a new review can be done.

But the challenge was too little, too late, Kraus ruled.

The primary reason for rejecting the lawsuit is the timing, the judge said. Under state law, the board had four months to challenge that decision, but the lawsuit wasn’t filed until eight months later.

"The shelter was approved months before most of the community was aware, and by the time residents had a chance to understand and respond, the legal window to challenge it had already closed," the East Side Accountability Alliance, a separate neighborhood group that formed in opposition to the homeless shelter, wrote in a statement on Instagram. "As a result, the court never evaluated the actual concerns about the project’s size, conditions, or approval process."

In the lawsuit, the condo board also sought to void the city’s contract with the nonprofit slated to run the shelter, but Kraus rejected that argument as well, deciding that the contract is a discretionary action that cannot be challenged through this type of legal proceeding.

A status conference is scheduled for April 17. See the court's full decision here.

For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.

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