'Burn The Place Down': Angry Residents Bash Queens Shelter Plan

MIDDLE VILLAGE, NY — Irate Queens residents turned a public hearing on a proposed homeless shelter Monday into a shouting match, as they bashed the city's plan to convert a vacant warehouse in Glendale into a shelter and drowned out any speakers with a message other than opposition.

The shelter's opponents called homeless people "drug addicts and sexual offenders" who should be "locked away forever," and "low life pieces of crap," according to the Queens Daily Eagle.

They booed a member of the Ridgewood Tenants Union who called for building more housing "for people that need it."

And they didn't stop there.

"I hope somebody's going to burn the place down," one woman yelled into the microphone as audience members cheered and pumped their fists.

Hecklers also interrupted a moment of silence for four homeless men who were killed while sleeping on the sidewalk in Manhattan's Chinatown over the weekend, the Eagle reported.

City Council Member Bob Holden, whose opposition to the Cooper Avenue shelter was a linchpin of his campaign, called the shelter "out of character" for the neighborhood and referred to shelter owners as "poverty pimps" who make money off the homeless.

He did not immediately condemn the rhetoric and threats during the hearing, according to the Eagle.

In a written statement issued Tuesday, Holden said: "I understand that my neighbors are frustrated, but comments like that are dangerous and uncalled for."

"Making such threats serves nobody, and I'm very disappointed with how this meeting is being portrayed as a result," he added.

Assembly Member Andrew Hevesi was the only elected official to speak in favor of the shelter, according to Gothamist.

"Those of you calling them sexual predators, who don't see them as human beings, shame on you," Hevesi said. "You’re way out of line."

Mayor Bill de Blasio has pledged to build 90 new homeless shelters under a 2017 plan called "Turning the Tide on Homelessness," but the proposed shelters have faced fierce opposition from fear-mongering neighbors, who claim that shelter residents bring crime and other quality-of-life issues.

In a tweet, he called the shelter opponents' rhetoric during the hearing "dangerous."

This kind of vitriol and demonization of our neighbors is dangerous and we won't stand for it.

There are people in need of safe and humane shelter in our city. We’re going to take care of them whether hateful voices like it or not. https://t.co/vQGPRmJu3v
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) October 8, 2019

Watch the full Queens Community Board 5 hearing here: