NY Supreme Court greenlights trans woman’s suit against NYC alleging it forced her to live in men’s homeless shelter

A Manhattan Supreme Court judge greenlit a transgender woman’s suit against New York City, allowing her landmark case over claims the city wrongfully forced her to live in men’s shelters when she was homeless, despite knowing she was trans, to move forward.

State Supreme Court Judge Lyle Frank ruled on July 17 that a transgender woman suing the city, identified as a Jane Doe, has legal standing to seek damages for alleged sexual harassment and assault she experienced while being forced to live with men in the city’s homeless shelter system. Doe's suit will also seek a court order preventing the city from continuing to block transgender people from accessing the housing unit that corresponds with their self-identified gender.

The judge said the arguments New York City made in its attempt to dismiss the case — such as that Doe didn’t fill out a certain form to request accommodation and that the city’s not legally responsible for actions of its contracted shelters — were not convincing.

Frank added that Doe’s claims were sufficient to show “discriminatory motive on a system-wide basis” in the city’s homeless shelters and that it is likely the system will continue treating trans people improperly unless the court steps in.  

Doe alleged that she was repeatedly told she had to undergo gender affirming hormone replacement therapy for a year before she would be allowed to live in a women’s shelter and that, if she did move to a women’s shelter, the 90-day waiting period for a CityFHEPS rental assistance voucher would restart. That represents an apparent contradiction of the city’s policy, which doesn’t require such a thing, and states that a transgender person’s self-identification is the most important piece of information in determining what housing unit they should live in. 

She says that resulted in sexual harassment, assault, and psychological damage when living with over a dozen cisgender men. What’s additionally troubling, she said, is that multiple staff members across shelters repeatedly told her this incorrect requirement — a sign that it may be a pervasive issue impacting trans people across the city.

And, when she was finally moved to a women’s shelter, Doe argues that there were still cisgender men in her room who harassed her and other trans women who had been placed there. 

“The issues that Miss Doe has raised in this lawsuit are extremely disturbing and seemingly systemic,” said Doe’s lawyer, Armen Merjian, of her 2025 suit. “What we saw was a terrible mistreatment of a transgender individual being forced to shower and sleep with 15 cisgender men, which led to repeated acts of sexual assault, harassment, and mistreatment by individuals in the homeless system in New York.”

Merjian said he was “delighted” by the court’s decision to allow Doe's case against the city to move forward. The lawyer explained that not only does the ruling support a path to justice for Doe and other trans people seeking shelter in New York City, but he also thought it would help set a nationwide precedent for listening to trans people when they request to live in housing units that correspond with their gender identity.

“The case also stands as a wonderful precedent nationwide that cross-gender placement of unhoused individuals is violative of their most fundamental rights, and we hope that this case will establish that,” Merjian said. “It's so important to continue to establish the rights of a marginalized population, and to say, ‘This is not any way to treat fellow citizens.’”

Merjian said he was hopeful that, after this ruling, the city would agree to settle the case in favor of Doe and establish a strong precedent that its shelters must place trans people in the housing unit they say they belong in, instead of continuing to fight it in court. 

The reason he's hopeful, he said, is that Mayor Zohran Mamdani is now leading City Hall and Steven Banks, the architect of the city’s landmark right-to-shelter regulations, heads the city’s Law Department. The case was brought and initially fought under ex-Mayor Eric Adams, and Merjian said he thinks Mamdani’s administration might strike a different tone — citing beliefs that Mamdani’s City Hall has shown itself to be champions of the city’s homelessness and sensitive to issues of injustice.

“I would hope, and I would assume, that the city would like to do right by Ms. Doe,” Merjian said. “Everything that we see from the Mamdani administration so far is that they are very sensitive to issues of injustice. If indeed they are sensitive to issues of injustice, then my assumption would be that they would want to do the right thing here.”

“The right thing here would not be to persist in an unfounded defense in the face of what is clearly a terrible chapter in New York history, vis-a-vis its transgender citizens,” he continued. “I certainly can't speak for the city. But, if they are true to the progressive message that Mamdani has set forth from the beginning of his tenure, then there is some hope that they will do right by Ms. Doe.”

A spokesperson for Mamdani did not respond to amNewYork’s request for comment on the ruling and on whether the city would consider settling Doe’s case. A Law Department spokesperson said it was reviewing the case.

If the city continues to fight, Merjian said he and his co-counsel at Brooklyn Legal Services and Wang Hecker LLP will fight back hard, and that he’s certain Doe will win.

“We have an airtight case here, sadly, because the facts are so deplorable,” the attorney said. “This will lead, inevitably, to trial.”