The city has altered its plan to convert a Maspeth hotel into a full-fledged homeless shelter, but residents who've been protesting for months are still skeptical. NY1's Gene Apodaca has the story.

Refusing to back down after months of protests...dozens rallied in front of the holiday inn express on 55th Road in Maspeth Queens Monday night.

This after the city moved quietly to rent several rooms there to homeless people.

Demonstrators call the move shady.

"This administration has been anything but transparent," said Bob Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association.

In a statement, the city said the plan to convert the site to a full shelter would not happen at this time because of local opposition.

However, it did confirm it was renting individual rooms to 30 homeless and employed men, and providing onsite services and security.

Two candidates running against one another for State Assembly say turning the hotel into a shelter would hurt the neighborhood and wouldn't help the people trying to get back on their feet.

"It's just a back door method the mayors just trying to be devious and trying to be unscrupulous by doing things like this why can't you find people the right place and treat them like humans," said Tony Nunziato.

"They tell you one thing and then they sneak people in the backdoor that's the big issue here is that they lie to community the question is how long did they know they were lying for," said Brian Barnwell.

The homeless issue has been a huge problem for the de Blasio administration, which is facing a record number of people living on the streets.

Many here agree it's a problem that needs addressing, but  one local lawmaker says this isn't the way the city should be conducting its business.

"Calling the electeds into City Hall saying we have a crisis how do we fix this throughout the five boroughs not pitting one borough against another all five boroughs asking the electeds for solutions helping instead of dictating would have been a far, far better way of treating homeless individuals than this," said state Senator Joseph Addabbo.

We're told it was the owner of the property who backed away from the idea of converting the hotel to a full shelter.

Despite that, protestors are convinced the plan is not dead and say they will continue their efforts.