Outside the massive Midtown homeless shelter that the Mamdani administration plans to shutter this month, about a dozen men carrying suitcases and large plastic bags were boarding a yellow school bus on Thursday morning.
They said they were being transferred to a Brooklyn shelter as the city moves quickly to empty the 400,000 square foot facility. Most of them said they only recently heard about the site’s planned closure.
“ Oh wow, now that I need the help, it’s like, wow, they closed it,” said Steven Roman, 31.
Administration officials said they would relocate people to other sites and open new shelters in the next six months. They said the shelter, known as Bellevue, is in a severe state of disrepair and will undergo a major renovation.
The Mamdani administration said the site’s future is still being discussed. The city-owned site also functions as the single point of entry for single men and adult families who are seeking a bed for the night.
City officials said those intake services would remain in Manhattan but relocate to two other shelters downtown.
Lamont Jones, 57, who has spent four months at Bellevue, said the facility was in need of an upgrade.
“Peeling paint, the elevator’s not working properly,” he said. “I don’t want to say anything too bad about the place because it’s helping me out and anything that helps me out is a good thing.”
But Jones said he worried about the city’s plans to move intake services that have been at the 30th Street shelter since 1984. He said most New Yorkers who need a place to sleep know to come to the facility. It’s also near Bellevue Hospital, where some people go to seek warmth or services, he said.
“You’re going to have a flood of people coming down here not knowing that the building is closing and they’re getting sent from Bellevue Hospital, because that’s where I came from,” he said.
The facility was built in 1931 and once housed a psychiatric ward. City officials said that though the site can accommodate 850 beds, only about 250 people remain, down from 450 a few weeks ago.
City officials said they would communicate with the public to direct them to the new intake facilities.
The Department of Homeless Services will also maintain staff on site for at least a year after it closes to make sure anyone who comes seeking shelter is told where to go.
City officials said they will also provide transportation to help people get to the new locations at 8 East Third St. for single men and at 333 Bowery for adult families who don’t have children.
Still, advocates for homeless New Yorkers said that although the site needed upgrades, they remained concerned about the speed of the closure. The Mamdani administration said everyone would be relocated by mid-month and intake services would be relocated beginning May 1.
Roman, who said he arrived at the shelter a day ago, said he hoped the site would reopen as a shelter and offer improvements such as a place to charge his phone in his room and some better food.
“ I’m a hot sauce person. So it’s like, gimme some hot sauce, man,” he said.