Fourteen residents of Greenwood Heights and Sunset Park have taken the city to court, filing a flurry of lawsuits this month to stop a planned 200-bed men's shelter on 25th Street. They argue the city signed off on the project without doing a proper Fair Share analysis or environmental review. The building, on 25th Street near Fourth Avenue, is slated to be converted into a HELP USA shelter program, and neighbors say the block is already crowded with multiple shelters and former hotels turned into temporary housing. The plaintiffs are representing themselves pro se and, the filings show, used artificial intelligence tools to help draft their initial complaints. Their goal is to force the city to pause or reconsider the approval before the operator moves in.
What the filing says and where the site is
According to reporting in the Brooklyn Eagle, the project, called HELP Quarterstone, is planned for 225 25th St, and developers have told neighbors it could open "possibly in October." The lawsuits say the new facility would join at least five other shelter locations within a half-mile radius and that, with additions like Quarterstone, Sunset Park would be home to at least 11 shelters. Local business owners and residents have raised safety, congestion and quality-of-life concerns at public meetings, according to the Eagle's coverage.
City officials: we’re spreading the footprint
City Hall counters that it is trying to balance the map. At a Community Board 7 meeting, Department of Homeless Services chief strategy officer Chris Gonzalez described a "shift in prioritization" when deciding where to place new facilities. Nicholas Jacobelli, deputy press secretary at the Department of Social Services, told reporters the administration has "identified a shelter location in every community district" and plans to bring new sites online in order to change the city's shelter footprint, as reported by the Brooklyn Eagle. Neighbors say those talking points do not address what they describe as chronic oversaturation on specific blocks like 25th Street.
Context: shelter demand and eviction surge
The court fight is unfolding against a backdrop of record shelter demand and rising eviction filings across New York City. A report from the Coalition for the Homeless found that 194,531 unique individuals passed through the city's shelter system in 2025, the highest annual total on record. Eviction filings also spiked, from roughly 42,110 in 2021 to about 114,832 in 2025. Advocates say those twin pressures have City Hall scrambling to find more beds even as neighborhood resistance, like the 25th Street lawsuits, grows louder.
What the lawsuits allege and what could come next
The complaints contend that the Department of Homeless Services and its contracting agencies relied on outdated Fair Share data and failed to conduct the required environmental review before approving the Quarterstone site. The Fair Share provision in the New York City Charter dates back to 1989 and does not spell out what counts as "oversaturation." A 2017 City Council report urged the city to update Fair Share criteria, increase transparency and improve community input when siting municipal facilities, recommendations the plaintiffs now cite in court; see the Council's summary here. Historically, local legal challenges have rarely stopped shelter openings outright. Earlier coverage of similar battles shows the city usually prevails in court, even if lawsuits slow projects down.
The new case gives a judge a familiar but fraught balancing act: weighing the city's obligation to provide emergency housing against residents' claims that their neighborhood is being asked to shoulder more than its fair share. The plaintiffs say they intend to keep pressing their case while City Hall continues scouting and converting additional sites. Whether HELP Quarterstone opens on the developers' hoped-for timetable may depend on how the court rules on the adequacy of the Fair Share analysis and environmental review.
