Homeless men living in a Queens shelter are terrorizing their neighbors, including a mom and her teen daughter — and one family was so scared they moved out of the neighborhood, victims and residents told The Post.
Seventeen-year-old Hailey Moreno was cornered last month in Ozone Park by two of the men — who told her “age doesn’t matter” and pressured her for her phone number, her mom said.
Lissette Moreno went looking for her daughter when the teen didn’t return home from work on time, and was stunned by what she saw.
“I see two tall guys standing over her so I run over and said, ‘What the F is going on here?,’” said Lissette Moreno, 51. “She was shaking.”
Two weeks later, Hailey was followed home by another stranger whom Lissette believes came from the Lantern Community Services shelter, a single men’s home on 101st Avenue, which is just a few doors down from where they live.
Hailey got away, and her mom tried to find the man to tell him to leave her daughter alone.
“She looks at me with so much anger,” Lissette said of her daughter. “Like, if we would have moved when the shelter opened, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Moreno said she too has been targeted, including last year in front of her son and granddaughter.
“I went to the store and a man told me everything he wanted to do to me. It was so graphic. How he was going to grab me and rip off my clothes,” she recalled.
Hailey isn’t the only teen who has been harassed, residents said.
One family moved to Long Island after their young daughter was threatened, said nearby resident Carmen Viruet.
“I said, ‘Why are you moving?’ and she said, ‘Because one of the guys in the shelter said he was going to rape my daughter, and I cannot let that happen,’” Viruet recalled.
Viruet lives two blocks from the shelter and keeps a close eye on her 15-year-old granddaughter, Alyssa Kearney, who has gotten catcalled by men there.
“[My parents] want me to cross the street every time so I don’t pass the shelter,” Kearney said.
The 113-bed men’s shelter opened in February 2019 to strong community opposition. Eight months later, a resident there was charged with molesting a 3-year-old boy at a laundromat.
Shelters like those run by Lantern — which has 15 sites across the city and hauled in nearly $17 million in taxpayer funds according to its 2021 tax filing — are not allowed to ask clients if they have ever been arrested, according to the city.
There have been 198 calls to the police about the shelter this year — up from 167 this time last year — for incidents such as assaults, disputes and disorderly conduct. The NYPD could not immediately provide arrest data for the location.
The shelter denizens have made life miserable in other ways, too.
“They’re peeing on the sidewalk, they’re causing trouble,” said Lois Brill. “A couple of months ago, a guy had his penis out as people with children were walking by.”
“There’s no curfews, no nothing,” said another resident.
An Aug. 8 meeting between community leaders, the city and the shelter was canceled after a Department of Homeless Services rep couldn’t make it, said Sam Esposito, president of the Ozone Park Residents Block Association. The sitdown is now set for next week.
“There’s new management there so we want to exchange information and get to know them,” state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Queens) said. “We need to make sure those men are getting the services they need but also that the community is safe from harassment or any other issues.”
DHS is set to renew a four-year, $82 million contract for the Ozone Park Lantern site, according to city records.
The DHS and Lantern did not immediately respond to inquiries.
