FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Middle River Terrace neighborhood has a long history of residents taking action to rid their community of crime, but some say it's gone too far. A group of homeless men who live along the railroad tracks off Northeast 13th Street accuse neighbors, and one resident in particular, of putting their lives at risk.

"This guy's crazy. He doesn't need to be on the street," said Steve Newton, one of five self-described drug users and ex-convicts who requested a restraining order against resident Steve Sticht.

To his neighbors, Sticht is a hero who's just trying to rid his community of crime, but the homeless men call him "The Chainsaw Man." They said he's yelled at them, shot at them and even threatened them with a chainsaw.

"Yes, we might have colorful pasts, we might have addictions but we all have the same rights. That doesn't constitute anyone to chase us with a chainsaw because my rights are the same as his rights and it's not fair," said Mike Scarola, a homeless man, who appeared at a press conference Tuesday.

The latest strategy to chase the men away has homeless advocacy and civil rights groups outraged.

Someone posted fliers in the neighborhood with pictures of the men, labeling them crackheads, crooks and prostitutes and put bounties on their heads. Michael Stoops, with the National Coalition for the Homeless, said the fliers put the men in immediate physical danger.

"Because fliers like this encourage immature teenagers or young adults to go after homeless individuals," said Stoops.

Sticht said he didn't make the fliers, and he denies the violent allegations but admits he's confronted the men over the burglaries, prostitution and drug use that he and his neighbors worked years to clean up.

They're making things up as they smoke crack or whatever," Sticht told Local 10's Roger Lohse.

Sticht said the issue isn't about the men being homeless.

"I have no problem with the homeless. Most homeless try to work and they do a job like selling newspapers, and they go to sleep in a homeless shelter or something,. These guys don't do anything. A lot of times they're prostituting themselves out here. Most of them have either crack or stolen goods on them. I mean they are not nice people," Sticht told Local 10.

Sticht has been ordered to stay at least 500 feet away from the men until a court hearing later this month to determine if he really poses a risk to the homeless men.

Fort Lauderdale police are caught in the middle of the fight.

Both sides said officers aren't doing enough to protect them.

But Sgt. Frank Souza said the homeless men haven't filed police reports against Sticht for the alleged violence, and they've refused to take advantage of the programs offered by the city and department to help homeless people.

The men admit it's partly because local shelters require them to stay sober and off drugs.

"This is a much more complex issue than just placing someone in a shelter, however they need to make themselves available to these programs and those offered through the police department so they can successfully rejoin society," said Souza.

Souza said officers are patrolling the Middle River Terrace neighborhood more frequently to keep people from trespassing on the railroad tracks.