New York City faces a lawsuit after a piece of ceiling from Bellevue homeless shelter allegedly fell on a man and severely injured him, but remains blocked by a state Supreme Court judge from moving services into a different shelter.
LaShawn McNair was inside the notoriously dilapidated Midtown Manhattan shelter on March 6 when a piece of its ceiling collapsed on him, causing him “permanent” injuries that have left him disabled with large, ongoing medical bills. He says his injuries are the city’s fault, alleging it was negligent for allowing the shelter to continue operating despite its grave need of repair.
“Solely as a result of the [city’s] negligence, carelessness, and recklessness, LaShawn McNair was caused to suffer severe and serious personal injuries to mind and body,” says the suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
McNair, who said he’s experienced severe nervous shock and extreme pain that prevents him from doing daily tasks, is seeking financial damages and coverage of his past and future medical bills from the city.
The city did not respond to a request for comment on the suit. City Hall has repeatedly said repairs to Bellevue are necessary and has been trying for months to move services out of the Midtown shelter to other locations in the city, including an existing East Village shelter, in order to make them.
But that plan has been blocked by State Supreme Judge Sabrina Kaus, who has sided with East Village residents suing over the city’s plan to use the shelter in their neighborhood for homeless men’s intake services.
The residents, who filed the case against the city under the unincorporated organization V.O.I.C.E., argue that Mayor Zohran Mamdani lacks the legal authority to shift services from Bellevue to the 8 East 3rd St. shelter because he “rushed” the plan forward without proper public and environmental review.
Kaus ruled to put the city’s plan to move intake services to the East Village shelter on temporary hold until she could hear arguments from both sides. She held a hearing late last month – weeks later than it was originally scheduled for – and is expected to issue a more permanent ruling in the coming weeks on whether the city may move services to the East Village shelter.
In court, the city has argued that it has broad authority to move homeless services to different sites as needed, without extensive public review processes, and that the mayor acted fully within his rights.
The Legal Aid Society has emphasized the need for the judge to allow the city to move services to the East Village shelter so people are not injured at the Bellevue shelter.
Staff attorney Josh Goldfein has said that Kaus is giving the residents’ arguments against the shelter an uncommon amount of credence. Typically, he said, judges don’t allow suits like this to hold up shelter operations because they boil down to people not wanting homeless people in their neighborhood and don’t have much, if any, legal justification.
“Usually, in the long history of NIMBY cases opposing shelters opening, judges have seen that the neighbors don’t have any good faith basis to block the opening of the shelter, and they nip it in the bud,” Goldfein said. “For whatever reason, this judge saw something that made her think it was okay to delay the opening of the new intake site for a period of weeks, despite the fact that the city expressed to her their concern that someone is going to get hurt if they continue to have to use the existing intake office.”
