Justice of the Supreme Court

Joshua E. Goldfein

Working Families

Joshua E. Goldfein is a staff attorney in The Legal Aid Society's Homeless Rights Project.

Overview Cases & record Support

Professional record

Legal Aid attorney · Homelessness · Disability rights

Homelessness & public health

Challenging congregate shelter placements during COVID

Fisher v. City of New York · Filed October 22, 2020

Member of the plaintiffs’ legal team

Legal Aid lists Goldfein on the team challenging the city’s placement of homeless adults in congregate shelters. The case settled.

What this tells you

Shows experience representing homeless New Yorkers in litigation involving health risks and access to shelter.

Read Legal Aid’s case account ↗

Case context & history

The question: How should the city protect homeless people at greater risk of serious illness in shared shelters?

Outcome / stage: Settled

Legal Aid reports that the Department of Homeless Services created interim risk guidelines to identify people at greatest risk and place them in less dense settings. Goldfein acted as a lawyer, not the judge. The source describes the legal team’s work; it does not attribute the entire result to him.

History coverage: Subsequent proceedings and appellate history have not been independently reviewed for this guide.

Experience, cases & evaluations →

Background

He has worked on housing and homelessness matters in New York City and earned a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Staff attorney, Homeless Rights Project, The Legal Aid Society (identified in March 2026 testimony and earlier 2019–2023 materials).
The Legal Aid Society reported that he helped lead litigation that halted the proposed transfer of about 8,000 homeless New Yorkers from hotel rooms during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Legal Aid Society's Fisher v. City of New York case page identifies him on the 2020 case team for a hybrid proceeding challenging congregate-shelter placement during the COVID-19 pandemic before the vaccine rollout; the case settled.
He signed a 2021 federal motion seeking a temporary restraining order concerning transfers of homeless people with disabilities and reasonable accommodations in shelter.
He signed an October 11, 2023 Legal Aid submission in Callahan v. Carey opposing the City's request to modify the 1981 consent judgment governing the right to shelter.
A March 15, 2024 Callahan v. Carey transcript identifies him as plaintiffs' counsel for Legal Aid and records his argument concerning shelter access for newly arrived New Yorkers.
His public legal work has included right-to-shelter, disability-accommodation and housing matters, including representation connected to the Coalition for the Homeless.
New York University School of Law, J.D. 1993.
Working Families candidate for New York Supreme Court in 2020.

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