The Legal Aid Society threatened the City with a lawsuit if it fails to provide full accommodations to families currently residing at the Flatlands Family Residence in Brooklyn, according to Gothamist.

It was reported yesterday that the City plans to move families with children from Flatlands Family Residence to make room for single women currently scheduled to move from the Long Island City Plaza Hotel in Queens.

“The City somehow believes that it is a safe and responsible decision to uproot families with young children at Flatlands Family Residence just days before school begins,” said Judith Goldiner, Attorney-in-Charge of the Civil Law Reform Unit at The Legal Aid Society. “Families across New York City are already on edge about the start of school in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and with this plan, the de Blasio Administration is cruelly and needlessly heightening that anxiety for these already vulnerable families at Flatlands.”

“It was predictable from the start and it is now very clear that the Mayor’s ill-advised reaction to the Upper West Side NIMBYism is causing fallout for hundreds of New Yorkers across the shelter system,” she continued. “His mismanagement of this self-created crisis is both reckless and callous, treating homeless New Yorkers as board game pieces who can be casually moved about. We will immediately engage the City on behalf of Flatlands’ residents to ensure that their needs are being met; otherwise we’ll vindicate their rights in court.”