NORWAY -The neighbor on Hayden Avenue who said he had investigated whether he could rent his home to registered sex offenders to protest a planned homeless shelter next door has said he was just making an empty threat.

Bernhard Loef said he would not lease his home to a registered sex offender, nor would he put in a pig farm, although both are allowed.

“We’re trying to make a point,” Loef said Thursday. “We’re trying to get this across to Rumford Group Homes, who don’t care if there are sex offenders here or pig farms, because they are not going to be here.”

The project will have four apartment units for single, homeless mothers and their children. A staff person from the social service agency Rumford Group Homes will have an office in the building and oversee the residents. The planning board approved the project last week despite objections from neighbors, who say such a house does not belong in a quiet, residential neighborhood.

There is no zoning that would have prevented the project in the neighborhood.

“It was purely a threat to demonstrate my feelings about having this project here,” Loef said.

Neighbor Elizabeth Tetreault, who lives on Hayden Avenue, said, “He can say whatever he wants. He is entitled to his opinion.”

Hazel Hudon, another neighbor, said she knew Loef wouldn’t actually invite a sex offender to his home. “He wouldn’t do that to his neighbors,” she said.