NEW YORK, NY June 05, 2009 —The state's top court has ruled that New York City must notify the Legal Aid Society whenever it tries to remove homeless people from shelters. The city does have the right to evict people who are violent, disruptive or don't follow shelter rules. But advocates say most people who don't comply are seriously mentally ill. Mary Brosnahan is from the Coalition for the Homeless.

BROSNAHAN: The solution is not to sanction them and throw them out on the street. The idea is they need more help and the last thing we need is more troubled people on our street.

REPORTER: Brosnahan says the city has attempted to remove 70 people from shelters since 2004 and advocates successfully intervened in dozens of those cases.

The city's law department says while it's disappointed in the ruling, the court did uphold the overall policy of removing people from shelters when they're unruly.