ASTORIA — There's no place like home for the holidays — unless you're being evicted.
Residents and elected officials are fighting a local religious organization's effort to boot about 35 tenants from a dormitory building at 31-65 46th St., a property the city had previously eyed for a potential homeless shelter but which the owner now plans to lease to an undisclosed, private not-for-profit group.
New York School of Urban Ministry (NYSUM), which trains religious leaders and runs social service programs, says it can no longer afford to operate its Christian Dorm Residence Program, in which tenants pay between $425 to $500 a month for a single room in the building while sharing a communal kitchen, living and bathroom space.
Residents were notified of the eviction plan on Nov. 17 and were originally told their rights as tenants would terminate at the end of December, according to a copy of the letter obtained by DNAinfo New York.
The Department of Homeless Services said it had previously considered the site for use as a city shelter, but will not pursue that use after learning in November that current tenants are being evicted, a spokeswoman said in a statement.
"At the time the City considered this property, it had no knowledge that there were residents living at this location who would be displaced," spokeswoman Lauren Gray said, adding that DHS is working with the tenants to connect them with free anti-eviction legal services.
Mayor Bill de Blasio's office said there are no plans for the city to use the space as a shelter.
Many of the building's occupants are low-income and unable to afford market-rate apartments in the area, leading to fears that some will become homeless if they're forced to leave, officials and tenants said Monday.
"This comes as such a great shock to us at this wonderful time of year," said Linda Lane Smith, an opera singer who has lived in the building for three years, describing it as a close-knit community of tenants.
"[They] just ripped the rug right out from underneath us," she said.
An attorney for NYSUM said the organization made the decision to evict the dorm's tenants "with a heavy heart" but that the group was forced to do so because of "financial losses over the past three years."
"NYSUM is unable to continue to afford the current operation," attorney Ira Clair said in a statement. "NYSUM is extremely concerned about the welfare of the residents and is doing everything they can to assist."
Clair could not elaborate on the organization's financial situation except to say that the building is operating "in the red."
He said he had no knowledge of talks to turn the site into a city-operated shelter, but said in a statement that NYSUM will be leasing the property to another nonprofit for a "charitable and public use."
He declined to name the entity or provide details on how it will use the building.
Peter DeArruda, a reverend and executive vice president for NYSUM, said in an email that it will be leased out as a "'Mother/Daughter' type of resident facility," but declined to offer further details.
In response to outcry from tenants and local leaders, NYSUM extended residents' termination date to Jan. 31. By agreeing to that deadline, the tenants' rights would effectively end on that date, according to statement from the group's attorney.
Doing so does not mean tenants will have be out by that specific date — rather, it's after that date that summary eviction proceedings could begin in court, according to the statement.
Elected officials and tenants held a press conference Monday outside 31-65 46th St. to protest the building owner's plan to evict tenants there. (DNAinfo/Jeanmarie Evelly)
City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, one of several elected officials working with tenants at the dorm building, vowed to help them fight the eviction plan.
He said he spoke with Rev. DeArruda on Monday and felt NYSUM should have done more and looked for alternative options to address their financial problems.
"We certainly understand that they need to pay their bills, but there has got to be a better way," he said. "We can't have non-profit Christian organizations acting as for-profit landlords, evicting low-income tenants."
