New York City is moving 110 single adult men into a Brooklyn shelter without conducting criminal background checks—right across the street from a neighborhood playground—and the working-class community of Sheepshead Bay is left to absorb the consequences.

The former Gold Star Inn, which has operated as a family shelter for roughly a year, will begin housing single men as early as next week after the city's Department of Homeless Services decided to relocate the 55 families currently living there, the New York Post first reported. The Department of Homeless Services confirmed that no criminal background vetting will take place—meaning potential sex offenders and convicted felons could be placed steps from Lew Fidler Park, a popular family playground.

Crime was already creeping in. According to NYPD data cited by both outlets, shooting incidents in the 61st Precinct have hit five so far this year—a 400% increase over the same period last year. Reports of rape doubled from eight to 16. Retail theft rose 10%. Fox News noted that overall crime in the precinct dropped about 7%, a detail the Post omitted—but residents aren't comforted by aggregates when specific violent categories are spiking.

"People are breaking into cars, people are destroying the park, taking their pants down in the park," Fahad, a 30-year-old plumber from Brighton Beach, told the Post. "It used to be very quiet."

City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (R-Brooklyn) warned in a letter to the Department of Social Services that the conversion would be "devastating for the surrounding neighborhood and community," citing loitering, drug activity, and crime. "The Department of Homeless Services confirmed that no criminal background vetting will take place, leaving room for potential sex offenders and convicted felons to come in contact with our children," she wrote.

Then there's the operator. The shelter is run by BHRAGS, a nonprofit whose former executive director Roberto Samedy and former board chairman Jean Ronald Tirelus were indicted in March on federal charges including wire fraud, embezzlement, and $1.3 million in illicit payments. The Post reported that the federal probe is also examining whether prominent Democrats accepted bribes in exchange for steering lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts to the organization—a detail Fox News did not include.

Despite the indictment, Mayor Zohran Mamdani awarded BHRAGS nearly $200 million in new city contracts in June. City officials told the Post that BHRAGS is under new leadership, that the Adams administration originally brought the operator in during the migrant crisis, and that the city has since cut the nonprofit's shelter portfolio from nine to four. They also said the shelter conversion reflects shifting demand—fewer families entering the system, more single men needing housing.

In other words: the operator gets caught allegedly stealing, the mayor rewards it with nine-figure contracts, and a quiet neighborhood gets 110 unvetted adult men across from a playground. "Not checking the background is not very diligent of the city," said Ginny, a 50-year-old neighbor. "How can they say they are protecting children when they allow that?"

The question answers itself. The city isn't protecting children—it's managing the fallout from policies it has no intention of changing, and handing the bill to communities like Sheepshead Bay.