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Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Centers wants to turn a former convent in St. George into 59 apartments for the mentally ill. However, residents in the diverse neighborhood say that plan does not work for the community, and a lawsuit now charges it's also illegal.

"The concern here is that placing nearly 60 people in this kind of segregated environment is unjustified isolation. The Supreme Court said it could be viewed as discriminatory," said lawyer Daniel Marotta. "So we believe that's a big problem. It wouldn't be fair to the residents and it wouldn't be fair to the community."

The State Office of Mental Health gave St. Vincent's $3 million to purchase the former convent. The hospital's original proposal was to create a home for so-called "stable" mentally ill patients, but last year it was revealed that newly-released prisoners and former substance abusers could also be housed there.

"When the entire population are patients who have a history of mental illness, including felons who are on release and placed here, we're very concerned," said Theo Dorian of the St. George Civic Association. "And the neighbors who live around here are very concerned that a single security guard wouldn't be enough."

The suit, filed in Richmond County Supreme Court, also claims the proposal doesn't make the best use of taxpayer dollars and that it violates zoning and building codes. It asks that the convent property be returned to the state for public use.

"The community would embrace any number of facilities here, including ones for which St. Vincent's has a need," said Dorian. "We would love to see interns housed here, we would love to see seniors housed here, or we would love to see youth housed here. If it's a commercial facility it would make a wonderful youth hostel, in a neighborhood with a very short walk to the ferry. It would make wonderful low-income housing or upper-income housing in this neighborhood."

NY1 reached out to St. Vincent's for a response to the lawsuit, but a spokesperson told the station Friday that the hospital could not comment on it yet as officials did not have a chance to review it.