A June 8 Crain’s newsletter teaser, behind its paywall, described “Adams’ ally Mastro” joining the fight against a Mamdani shelter. That is Randy Mastro, former First Deputy Mayor under Eric Adams and a deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani before that. The shelter is the intake center the city is opening at 8 East Third Street in the East Village. The teaser left out his history: more than a decade ago, Mastro beat back a wealthy neighborhood coalition that tried to block a homeless shelter, and won a case that, in the words of an op-ed signed by the shelter operator, set “new legal precedents that continue to protect the entirety of NYC’s homeless shelter system to this day.” (amNewYork)
This time he was arguing the other side, and on Wednesday he lost.
Bellevue is NYC’s largest homeless shelter for men, housed in the old Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital on First Avenue between East 29th and East 30th Streets. The building went up in 1931 and was converted to emergency housing in 1984, and it could hold as many as 850 men. In March, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration announced it would close the place, citing what Gothamist described as multiple fire safety concerns, code violations, and a reputation for violence. “My administration is focused on ensuring every New Yorker experiencing homelessness not only has access to shelter, but to spaces that are safe, humane and truly livable,” Mamdani said in a statement. “We cannot accept a system that treats people without dignity or stability.” (Gothamist)
Roughly 250 residents were relocated to Brooklyn, and the city’s Department of Homeless Services said it had to bring temporary shelters online to address the resulting reduction in shelter capacity for single adult men. The intake function, the front door of the men’s system where about 80 men a day come looking for a bed, had to land somewhere new. The city picked 8 East Third Street for single men and 333 Bowery for adult families, with the family intake slated to move August 1. (Gothamist)
The East Third Street choice is where the neighborhood revolted. A group called the Village Organization for the Integrity of Community Engagement, which goes by VOICE, sued to stop it, joined by residents including longtime neighbor Trisha Goff. Their argument was not that they hated the homeless, it was process: the plan was rushed, it skipped the standard land-use, environmental, and “fair share” reviews, and the public got, by their account, only a few hours’ notice of a community meeting. (Gothamist)
For a few weeks, it worked. State Supreme Court Judge Sabrina Kraus issued a temporary restraining order that paused the opening while letting construction continue, and the case went to a hearing. That is where Mastro went to work for VOICE. He told the court the renovation was no minor touch-up. Pointing to residents’ photos of more than a million dollars in construction at the city-owned building, he called it a “gut demolition” and argued it amounted to a major capital project, and therefore something that legally required public review. (amNewYork)
The judge listened, for a while. When a city lawyer argued that beefed-up security at the site was about “more unknowns” rather than danger, Kraus cut in: “Counsel. I mean, come on.” She also drew a distinction, noting the neighbors were not opposed to the existing shelter and that this was not the usual NIMBY fight, but an objection to how little the city had shared about bringing in a more transient intake population. (amNewYork)
It did not hold. Kraus dismissed the residents’ claims and lifted the restraining order. “There is no legal basis to find that the city’s decision to relocate the intake center to East Third Street was made in violation of law or in an arbitrary and capricious manner,” she ruled. (AOL) The city moved roughly 25 men into 8 East Third Street on a Thursday night, and Mamdani framed it as a promise kept: “For years, conditions at Bellevue had been allowed to deteriorate, making this transition both necessary and urgent.” The neighbors said they plan to appeal. (Gothamist)
Mastro’s record is the opposite of where he ended up. He defended the Bowery Residents’ Committee through nearly four years of litigation against a wealthy coalition trying to keep a Chelsea shelter out, and that win is the precedent advocates still lean on. The shelter operator’s own people credited him with “a heartfelt conviction to ensure that the right to quality care of our city’s most vulnerable would not be denied.” (amNewYork) The lawyer who built the wall that protects shelters spent this spring arguing one should be slowed down.
Mastro has gone to the harder edge of these fights before. In March 2021, representing Upper West Side residents who wanted homeless men evicted from the Lucerne Hotel, he sent investigators posing as plumbers to photograph the homeless advocate Shams DaBaron, an episode a local lawmaker called “stalking” and a city spokesperson called “an absolute egregious invasion of this individual’s privacy.” DaBaron later backed Mastro’s nomination for Corporation Counsel anyway, calling him an “ideal candidate.” (Gothamist)
The fight fits a pattern the Mamdani administration has now run into more than once: a housing or shelter move that draws fire from both the right and the people who voted for him. Bushwick Daily previously reported that half the units in Mamdani’s 200,000-home affordable housing plan are not aimed at the lowest-income New Yorkers, and separately reported that his first housing move was a court fight with a landlord, which the administration lost. This one it won, over a lawyer who once made his name on the other team.
Whether the East Village should host an intake center is one question. The lawyer best positioned to know how strong the city’s legal footing was poured that footing himself, took the case against it anyway, and the footing held. The neighbors say they will appeal. If you live near 8 East Third Street, or anywhere a shelter or intake site is being contested, the public-review questions Mastro raised are the ones the appeals court will weigh next, and your community board is where that record gets made before a judge ever sees it. You can find and contact yours through the city’s official lookup at nyc.gov.
Featured image: Oleg Yunakov / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
