Wendy Pedersen read Tuesday from a threatening note attached to a bag of human waste thrown at a Vancouver homeless shelter. (CBC)

A threatening letter and a bag of human waste were hurled at a controversial homeless shelter on Vancouver's Howe Street this month, occupants and supporters said Tuesday.

Some local residents have recently complained the downtown site has become a magnet for prostitution and drug dealing, but on Tuesday, a rally was held outside of the shelter in support of the facility.

The shelter is one of two that were opened on a temporary basis near the Granville St. bridge last December. Funding for the shelters was extended, and they were kept open longer than originally intended. One of the shelters closed in June, and the Howe St. shelter, which has 38 beds, is set to close at the end of this month.

Wendy Pedersen of the Carnegie Community Action Project said it is the shelter's residents who are the victims. She quoted from the note attached to the bag of waste.

"Bleep off back to East Van where you all belong," Pedersen quoted the letter as saying, censoring the coarse language. "Get the bleep out now. The bombing will continue. Bleep off, losers."

Laura Track, a staff lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society, called for patience while money for permanent housing solutions is found.

"Everyone deserves the opportunity to have a safe, supportive and stable place to call home," said Track. "But until we have the social housing that's been promised by the provincial government, we have to rely on these emergency stop-gap measures."

Brenda Jamer, who lives in a nearby condominium, said reports that the shelter is a nuisance are false.

"Most of us haven't noticed anything. Very little has changed here," said Jamer.