Just hours after Boston’s Zoning Board of Appeals voted 6-1 to allow a new family shelter in West Roxbury last week, neighbors filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop it.

The shelter, opening in a vacant former nursing home at 5 Redlands Road — near the intersection of Centre Street — was initially expected to open in July on the one-way residential street. It’s been held up by a vocal group of neighbors who are attempting to use the city’s zoning code to prevent what others call much-needed housing in the community.

Neighbors have accused the shelter providers of misleading city officials and even doctoring documents to win approvals, while the providers themselves say they are well within their rights to operate the shelter.

“Zoning is the backbone of neighborhood democracy. It is democ

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