Everyone involved in the crisis at 90 Linden Avenue in Middletown has lost their composure at least once.

“You know I will (expletive deleted) you up bad,” one of the landlord’s employees said to a frustrated displaced tenant Thursday on the front steps.

In the midst of the tension, there is Olga Zelaya, a tenant.

“I’m very worried about me. I’m going to be in the street,” she said with a plastic bag in one hand, a cane in the other. Zelaya is one of 11 tenants who were displaced from the building Monday.

City officials and the landlord confirmed the building was condemned because the boiler cracked.

“I don’t know any more what to do,” Zelaya said. “I’m so hurt. I want to go back home.”

Zelaya and her brother Jaime Rodriguez, who drove up from New York City to help, are seeking counsel to figure out whether they have any civil court options to make Zelaya whole following the sudden crisis.

But currently, there are not any housing laws or policies that might help save the tenants from being placed in a homeless shelter. A ragtag intervention involving Orange County social workers, city building inspectors and volunteers from a local church has led to little.

The landlord and the church paid for a combined four nights in a nearby hotel for all 11 tenants, but at 11 a.m. Friday, tenants will have to go somewhere else.

Amid the confusion, some tenants thought they had a chance of being placed in “real homes,” but “that is a misunderstanding,” volunteer organizer Valerie White said to a group of tenants and their families.

“There are no permanent accommodations,” she said.

White said it is much easier for her to find resources for someone who is already homeless, but much harder to help someone who is still on the brink of homelessness.

“This goes on and on, as the inspector can tell you,” she said gesturing toward a city building inspector with whom she had just been speaking. “This is not the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last. The homeless population is a population that’s been created.”

City building inspectors tried to help by doing an informal assessment of all the tenants’ needs.

Police responded early Thursday to arguing between tenants and building employees, and then stayed to referee the situation.

The landlord of the building named ‘Sheli’ said he is also frustrated with the local government’s response to the crisis. He said he does not want his tenants to be placed in a shelter even temporarily, and he wants them to be warm.

“I’m a victim, too,” he said. “I’m trying to put everybody in a safe place and a hot place, because it’s cold outside, and we take it from there.”

Middletown Mayor Joe DeStefano said Wednesday he is not blaming the landlord for the “unfortunate” boiler problem, and “all wheels of government are turning” to try to keep the tenants from being sent to a homeless shelter.

Perhaps a long shot, Zelaya hopes to come back to live in her home in three months when the landlord expects the building to be inhabitable again.

“I’m hoping for them the problem here and get [me back] inside,” she said.

Until then, she and her brother are unsure about a survival strategy.