New York City parents were outraged after city officials placed five registered sex offenders — including two convicted pedophiles — into a homeless shelter in Manhattan’s Financial District that schools surround.
According to the New York Post, this is the second time the Department of Homeless Services moved deviant ex-cons into this neighborhood since the COVID–19 pandemic began.
“As parents, we cannot count on local government to look out for our children,” one angry mother told the outlet.
“I am not opposed to helping those in need and providing shelters for the homeless in my community, but I am against placing violent pedophiles with a block of schools,” she said.
Officials turned the former Radisson Hotel at 52 William St into a temporary shelter back in March of 2020.
The report claims that the state’s official sex-offender registry currently shows four of the five men still listing this location as their address.
The shelter is less than a block away from the private Pine Street School for pre-K to elementary students and is also within 500 feet of two other schools and a daycare center.
“Families no longer feel safe. We don’t feel our kids are safe…I used to take nightly walks, 10 to 11 p.m. I no longer leave my house alone at night,” a mother of two Pine Street school students said.
Outraged parents and community members who learned about their deviant new neighbors have apparently forced their relocation by filing numerous complaints. The DHS now claims it had “resolved” the “placement issues at this site.”
