Chair Hudson questions DHS on Bellevue closure and repair decisions

And we often hear about the poor condition of shelter facilities.

The Bellevue men's shelter was closed in April 2026 due to severe disrepair and unsafe building conditions.

How does DSS decide which shelters to repair or in the case of Bellevue, which to close entirely?

Thank you for the question.

In reference to Bellevue, I'll answer this question as the Commissioner pointed out.

There are really two approaches to this.

One is for publicly owned, city or state owned facilities, and the other are privately owned.

So when it comes to publicly owned shelters, obviously,

The last resort is to close a facility, and we would only do that on the advice of our enforcement agencies like Department of Buildings or FDNY.

And this requires architect and engineering reports.

It's a very big decision to make.

But what we...

Do day to day is maintain our buildings, right?

So we have a long-term interest in keeping our buildings.

And the way we're assessing is how much money are we spending on repairs over time?

What are the results of a building inspection?

What notifications, complaints, incidents are happening at particular shelters?

And again, the goal is not to close, but it's to remediate.

And again, that's really how for the capital side, the publicly owned buildings, we try to maintain and repair rather than close.

Thank you.