(DNAINFO)  Katie Honan | December 24, 2015 — The city has had to transfer a family out of a controversial homeless shelter after their son was called the N-word at a nearby middle school and threatened with racially-motivated gang violence, according to officials and sources.

The boy, whose name is being withheld by DNAinfo New York because of his age, was in the school’s gym locker room at Intermediate School 5, a few blocks away from the shelter, last month when he was approached by children from the neighborhood, according to sources.

The neighborhood children called him the racial slur, spit on him and called him a “dirty kid from the Boulevard” — referring to the name of the Boulevard Shelter that is located inside the former Pan Am hotel, sources said.

Source: Child From Pan Am Shelter Spit on, Called Racial Slur at School: Sources – Elmhurst – DNAinfo.com New York