"Danger. Asbestos may cause cancer" — the signs are posted all over the site of a planned La Quinta Inn in Staten Island's Port Richmond section, halting work until the cancer-causing material is removed.

"Even short-term exposure can be very problematic," said Mary Bullock of the group Port Richmond Strong. "You can carry it home on your clothes. If you have children — I mean, it's just, it's very dangerous."

Plans to build the 75-room inn on Port Richmond Avenue were announced last summer. The developer also said a Country Inn & Suites with 61 guest rooms would be built down the road.

Local residents were suspicious. They said this is a struggling community that wouldn't seem to need one new hotel, let alone two.

Their concerns increased when they learned that the developer has built other hotels in struggling communities and then rented rooms out to the Department of Homeless Services.Their concerns increased when they learned that the developer has built other hotels in struggling communities and then rented rooms out to the Department of Homeless Services. Homeless families now occupy 85 percent of the rooms at a La Quinta Inn that the developer built in Rockaway, Queens.

"La Quinta is the front for this, and Country Inn & Suites, and shame on them," Bullock said. "And then he says, 'Well, you know, I can't really rent all the rooms,' and so DHS says, 'Well, it's an emergency, we'll put some homeless people in.'"

The demolition of buildings on the La Quinta Inn site began two months ago. The city buildings department halted the work for 10 days after discovering a site safety plan was not filed.

Acting on a tip, city inspectors visited again on July 3, discovered the asbestos, and halted the demolition work indefinitely until it can be removed.

Nearly 17 percent of the storefronts on Port Richmond Avenue are vacant, and residents say this is a community that's struggling to revitalize. They say they hope that the problems at this job site will shut it down permanently and scrap the plans to build the hotel.

"Hotel is not housing; hotel is temporary," said Kathleen Sforza of the Northfield Local Development Corporation.  "If you provide a home for a person with a bathroom, and a kitchen, and a bedroom … then it becomes a home. A hotel never becomes a home."

Calls to the developer were not returned. The Bill de Blasio Administration said it would not convert the proposed hotels into shelters.