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After an attempt to save it failed in court, Manhattan elected officials are urging the Mamdani administration to reconsider its decision to close Mainchance, “the only homeless drop-in center located in East Midtown.”
Mainchance, a longtime drop-in center for the homeless in Manhattan, will close Tuesday after a prolonged fight with two mayoral administrations to stay open.
The center has served Midtown East homeless residents with meals and chairs to sleep in for over 30 years. But Mayor Eric Adams’ administration tried unsuccessfully to terminate the center’s contract in early 2024, and the Department of Social Services under Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined to renew it. Mainchance’s contract expires June 30.
Some elected officials worry that closing the center will create a gap in the network of homeless services in high-trafficked Midtown, especially as the city moves the system’s nearby central intake shelter, Bellevue, to the East Village. But the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) says Mainchance is no longer part of its plans, which include opening at least one shelter in every neighborhood.
Mainchance has stopped taking clients, and DHS says they have outreach teams helping people find assistance elsewhere.
“I feel sorry for our customers because they’re being told with no control that they should start over again, and then just being transported to whatever is open,” said Mainchance CEO Brady Crain. “In a horrible way, they are used to this. They’re used to being moved about without being told something.”
The Department of Social Services did not immediately return a request for comment.
The protracted closure was full of disputed allegations. Earlier this year, DHS investigated complaints that the center turned people away improperly (drop-in centers are supposed to be open 24/7). Mainchance denied the allegations and sued to stay open.
In court, lawyers for the city argued that they had the right to let contracts expire and that the administration would prefer to invest resources in Safe Havens—low barrier-to-entry shelters—instead of drop-ins like Mainchance.
But the proceedings left Mainchance management, and some homeless advocates, confused.
“It was three-card monte for Mainchance, because they kept on switching the reasons why they was closing us down,” said Crain.
Judge Lynn Kotler, who presided over the case, expressed concern over reducing homeless services during a housing crisis, but ultimately dismissed Mainchance’s challenge, writing that she did not see a path towards keeping it open.
During a hearing on June 18, Kotler had urged the sides to find a settlement—possibly for Mainchance to convert to a Safe Haven, as the center’s leadership suggested two years ago.
But DHS declined to engage in settlement talks, according to Mainchance’s lawyer Marc Gross, and said that there was no budget allocation to keep the center open into July.
“What is the alternative for the population that has been using this particular drop-in center?” said Kotler.
“I don’t think sending population to the drop-in center in Union Square, Hell’s Kitchen, or I believe in Kips Bay—drop-in centers that are already overcrowded—makes a lot of sense,” she added.
Manhattan Councilmembers Harvey Epstein, Virginia Maloney, Gale Brewer, and Carl Wilson, as well as state representatives Kristen Gonzalez and Keith Powers, signed onto a letter earlier this week asking the Mamdani administration to reconsider the decision.
“With the closure of the Bellevue Men’s Intake Center on East 30th Street earlier this year, the services provided by Mainchance fill a critical need for homeless New Yorkers. It is the only homeless drop-in center located in East Midtown Manhattan,” the group wrote.
Crain says he will miss developing relationships with his clients, and fears the center’s closure will hurt already fraying trust between the city and homeless New Yorkers.
“People took their time to come in and develop a relationship,” said Crain. “Again, it fails and they are back out on the street. So it’s hard for the homeless to believe anything.”
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