Elizabeth Street Garden has two more weeks to avoid eviction

Elizabeth Street Garden has gained two more weeks to avoid eviction.

A last-minute stop at Manhattan Garden on Wednesday means a city marshal won't be able to padlock the gates on Thursday as expected.

It's the latest step in a years-long battle over SoHo's popular green space, which the city wants to convert into affordable housing for seniors. Advocates who want to save the garden say there are better areas for a new building. But city officials, backed by Mayor Eric Adams, have called those claims disingenuous.

“Tonight, thousands of older New Yorkers, New Yorkers of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds are in shelters,” Ahmed Tigani, first deputy commissioner of the Housing Preservation and Development Agency, said Wednesday at an unusual last-minute news conference. “It’s all too easy to fight affordable housing in New York City.”

The noise surrounding the Elizabeth Street Garden, which is publicly owned but managed by a nonprofit organization, has increased in recent weeks after years in the making. Some have argued that the garden was only truly opened to the public when the city unveiled plans to develop the site into affordable housing a decade ago.

Joseph Reiver, the garden's executive director, said the site has strong support from the community and that he has met with Mayor Adams about the rescue.

“It’s amazing how many people support the garden,” he said.

But Tigani said the garden's managers had stopped paying their rent and the need to build affordable housing for seniors trumped any sympathy they had gained from supporters.

“We have been working for 10 years to get this site to a place where 123 units of affordable senior housing can be built,” Tigani said.

The substantive filing means an appeals judge must hear both sides again by Oct. 30.

Reiver said the garden's supporters are ready to continue the fight.

“When HPD and the city go to court tomorrow, we will meet them there,” he said.