Neighbors can't stop talking about this fight club.
Residents of an apartment building in Queens say they've had little peace since January, when a 128-room hotel in Long Island City was transformed into a city-run migrant shelter.
Children living in the seven-story building wander outside their front door in large, unsupervised groups almost every night, residents of the neighboring 911 44th Drive allege. From 8 p.m. until well past midnight, the children fight, chase, yell and scream, disrupting the sleep of neighbors.
“I've seen kids punching each other like in Fight Club, or choking each other,” another resident said. “Sometimes the security guards come out and try to stop it, but I've also seen them do nothing.”
“The other night we saw five or six young people, around 12 to 14 years old, punching a little kid,” the resident said. “The kid couldn't be older than eight and they pushed him onto the pavement and kicked him in the head.”
Video provided to The Washington Post shows teenagers yelling and fighting outside the shelter's front door, at times watched and encouraged by the shelter's security guards.
The footage shows small children being overpowered and crushed by crowds of other children, with one video showing a larger boy approaching a much smaller one, clutching his head and wrestling him for several minutes before wrestling him to the ground in a pro-wrestling style.
Other videos show kids skateboarding late at night after dark, and kids playing chase as the building's security guards intervene.
Two electric fans, air conditioning and earplugs are no match for the constant noise.
“The screaming and screaming of kids cuts through everything,” said a neighbor who has lived in the building since 2011, asking not to be named for fear of retribution. “It's been happening pretty much every night since about April.”
“I have nothing against immigration, but it's unbearable to have to listen to this every night and lose sleep over it,” he continued.
And it's taking a toll on his health.
“I have an autoimmune disease which is usually manageable with proper sleep and diet, but these symptoms have left me feeling weaker than usual,” the man said.
Luisa Cabrera, 25, often passes by the shelter on her way home in the evenings.
“It's disturbing to see this every night, and some of these kids are really vulnerable,” said Cabrera, who is studying interior design. “Where are the parents? Why is no one watching these kids?”
Nighttime disturbances outside shelters run by the Department of Homeless Services have led to 311 complaints, with 17 in total, since June.
The former Wyndham Garden is located in a primarily industrial area, across from the Ministry of Education's administration building.
Last November, the hotel was sold to Long Island-based Bayrock Capital for about $24 million.
Two neighbors said they contacted City Councilwoman Julie Wong's office about excessive noise and fighting between minors.
“I was told that DHS told her that security guards would enforce the noise ordinance but they never did,” one neighbor said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Human Services would not even confirm that the former hotels are now shelters “to protect the privacy of vulnerable New Yorkers” and “social service recipients living in these locations.”
The outraged neighbour added: “I don't care who you are or where you're from, I just want you to be a good neighbour. It's not much more complicated than wanting to get a decent amount of sleep.”
