New York Times: In Queens, Immigrants Clash With Residents of New Homeless Shelter - “But in interviews, many said the homeless families simply made them feel unsafe. ‘When you see them, it looks like they’re going to mug you’” (More cracks in the vibrant rainbow.)

In Queens, Immigrants Clash With Residents of New Homeless Shelter



The crowd of 500 included grandmothers and small children, Chinese immigrants and the president of a local Republican club, all shouting that the mayor had trampled their rights.

The source of their anger? The 180 homeless families that New York City had moved into the defunct Pan American Hotel in Elmhurst, Queens. The residents felt nervous around the new arrivals, they said. There were reports of shoplifting from the Good Fortune Supermarket, public urination and panhandling — all things, they said, that had been unheard-of in their neighborhood until now.

During the protest on Tuesday night, one of the organizers spoke through a bullhorn in Mandarin, as a few people looked out the windows of the hotel.

“Speak in English!” a woman leaning out a window shouted, holding up her phone, perhaps to videotape the protest.

“Homeless with money,” a protester sneered, referring to the woman and her phone.

While local residents often object when the city opens a homeless shelter in their midst, the vitriol in Elmhurst since the city began moving families into the hotel in early June has shocked New York officials. ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/26/nyregion/homeless-shelters-opening-in-queens-stirs-ugly-exchanges.html?_r=1