Lawsuit alleges new men’s shelter violates NYC Fair Share policies

Sarah Campbell

Lawsuit alleges new men’s shelter violates NYC Fair Share policies
A sidewalk stencil outside the proposed men’s shelter at 225 25th Street, slated to open in July, reads, “Affordable housing yes, warehouse shelters no.” Photo by Sarah Campbell

Members of the Greenwood Heights Association (GWHA) have filed a lawsuit against the city alleging that a proposed 200-bed shelter at 225 25th Street violates NYC Fair Share policies, criteria meant to evenly distribute both the burdens and benefits of city facilities.

The lawsuit is a Hail Mary in the years-long fight against the proposed men’s shelter, waged by community groups, local leaders and elected officials alike. In 2024, the building was purchased by real estate developers Joel Shafran and David Levitan, whose company appeared on the New York City Public Advocate’s worst landlords list in 2015, before plans moved forward to convert the former factory into a men’s shelter.

Sunset Park is home to a number of homeless shelters, particularly concentrated between 22nd and 38th Street and Third and Fourth Avenue. Local opposition to the new shelter has largely centered on the already-high number of shelters in the neighborhood rather than opposition to shelters in general, as cited in the complaint.

The Department of Social Services (DSS) is required to provide a “Fair Share Analysis” to the Mayor’s Office regarding city facilities such as homeless shelters. The suit’s primary complaint is that DSS’ analysis for 225 25th Street is “legally deficient.” In its analysis, DSS posits that despite, or rather because of, the presence of other shelter facilities within Community District 7 (CD 7), the use of the facility as a shelter “fits within the context of the neighborhood.” The lawsuit maintains that DSS’ assertion that the shelter is compatible with the neighborhood inverts the intent of the Fair Share provisions of the City Charter and that an existing concentration of shelters should, in fact, trigger higher scrutiny.

DSS also claims that CD 7’s overall ratio of residential facility beds per population of 22.2 per 1,000 residents is only slightly above the citywide average at 18.2 per 1,000 residents. Part of the problem with these analyses, according to the lawsuit and a 2023 audit by the Comptroller’s Office, is that the last time DSS calculated bed-to-population ratios was 2015. Other Fair Share compliance criteria have not been reviewed since 1995.

The lawsuit provides a separate estimate for the immediate six-block area around the site, calculating the local ratio at approximately 390 shelter beds per 1,000 residents.

The suit also alleges that the city failed to conduct proper environmental review, despite the project’s potential impacts on traffic, public safety, transit access, school routes and neighborhood character.

Another major aspect of the suit regards the process by which the site was bought, converted and approved. The suit asks that the city be unable to proceed without a meaningful pre-siting public process. In 2025, amid growing concerns from the neighborhood, U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman and City Councilmember Alexa Avilés sent letters to City Hall in opposition to the shelter, both of which are exhibits in the suit.

Goldman echoed the association’s sentiment that the city is violating Fair Share principles, stating that “largely immigrant communities like Sunset Park ... have received an unjustly large concentration of shelters and supportive services that far outstrips the number of similar services located in wealthier neighborhoods.” Avilés wrote that “the City should be incentivizing the creation of permanent housing, which is what we need, rather than temporary shelter facilities.” Goldman, GWHA and members of Community Board 7 have also expressed support for low-income housing as an alternative to the shelter.

GWHA is an ad hoc group of neighbors and business owners. Fourteen members filed the lawsuit without a lawyer after being quoted between $75,000 and $200,000 by attorneys, noting that barriers like legal fees can keep working-class communities like those in Sunset Park from fighting back against what they claim are unjust city proposals.

“We obviously support shelters and we support housing, but Fair Share means something.” said Hakan Topal, lead plaintiff on the suit. “This neighborhood cannot be made to absorb the city’s hardest problems simply because officials think it is politically easier”

Without legal intervention, the shelter at 225 25th Street is slated to open in July.