After seeing its capital funds diminish, the Lycoming Housing Authority announced Tuesday that it has decided to sell the Center, which puts the existence of the Campbell Street Family Youth and Community Association at risk.
MeriLyn Severson, executive director of the housing authority, explained that the decision to sell the property at 600 Campbell St. came after looking at finances.
She said instead of continuing to own the property and perform the needed work and upgrades, the housing authority will focus more on providing housing for its residents.
"This is a decision that we feel is in the best interest of or low-income residents," she said.
Severson added that there was a lease agreement between the housing authority and the association for the use of the building.
Sam Belle, president of the board for the association, said he was told Tuesday that the decision was final but knew the decision was coming.
"We got a telephone call telling us about an hour ago, although we knew because in July we were told they were going to sell it," Belle said Tuesday afternoon.
Severson said she met with the community association Tuesday to inform it of the decision.
"We met with the Center (Tuesday) and we had ongoing discussions with them over the past year," she said.
With the building going on the market sometime in early 2013, Belle isn't sure what's going to become of the Center.
"We aren't sure," he said "We're trying to put some things together that will allow us to stay there but we're not sure."
The association had operated in the building before the housing authority purchased it in 2007, but Belle said it's "up in the air." The board of directors were planning to meet Tuesday night to discuss the announcement.
"We'll discuss it and figure out what our next step should be," he said.
As the decision by the housing authority was for financial reasons, Belle said the association can continue if it has a space to utilize but he isn't sure for how long.
"We can continue for a while but I'm not sure how long we can continue," he said. "We're hoping that we can continue somewhere into the middle of next year if we have that much time."
The housing authority will begin repairs to the property in December.
Until it is sold, Belle said the association will try to continue as close to normal as possible.
"We will operate as normal and we were told that - well we have no idea when we will have our last few moments there," he said.
