A Catholic church in Greenwich Village wants to boot a senior center from its basement so the star-struck pastor can make room for Hollywood, advocates say.
Our Lady of Pompeii Church has been home to the Caring Community Senior Center since 1973, but Father Walter Tonelotto won’t renew the group’s $ 2,000-a-month lease when it comes up in June.
Run by nonprofit group Greenwich House, the center serves 1,400 meals a month to the elderly and provides exercise classes, games and legal workshops.
But Tonelotto “believes by renting out to entertainment companies as a holding area for cast and crews, it’s of strong monetary value to the church,” Greenwich House CEO Roy Leavitt said.
Seniors complained they’ve already been losing space to film crews and movie equipment.
“Why are they putting us out, so they can make money?” Gary Friedman, 73, asked The Post. “Part of the space, when we’ve been eating, has been rented out to film sets.”
A horror film set up there a few weeks ago and turned the center’s kitchen into a morgue — as center regulars ate their meals a few feet away, Friedman said.
Leavitt said he was “baffled” by the priest’s money-making scheme. And state Sen. Brad Hoylman called it “harebrained.”
Hoylman, a Democrat, said he called Tonelotto last week but that the priest wouldn’t budge.
“I can’t think of a better mission for a local parish church than to provide meals to seniors in the community,” Hoylman said.
“These are some of the most vulnerable people in Greenwich Village who might lose their senior center because of a harebrained scheme to make more money.”
Greenwich House received a letter last month informing it of the church’s intention not to renew the lease — even though Tonelotto said months before the center could stay, Leavett claimed.
The priest said Caring Community is a “burden” the church can no longer afford, Leavitt and Hoylman said.
Our Lady of Pompeii ChurchPhoto: Helayne Seidman
The pastor indicated paying for utilities and upkeep was becoming too costly, Leavitt said, but never billed the charity for these items.
“We have no idea what his actual costs are,” Leavitt said, adding that the center often got warm in summer as the church tried to save money on air conditioning.
“We’re prepared to help support the church in maintaining the space,” Leavitt added. “I don’t see the dilemma for [the pastor] because I think there are solutions.”
On Friday, seniors dining on a lunch of butter-crumb scrod and white beans were shocked to learn of the coming eviction.
Josephine DeCicco, 94, a longtime volunteer whose sister founded the center, said Tonelotto doesn’t visit the center or return calls about a lack of heat and repairs.
“It would break my heart to see the center go,” DeCicco she said. “A lot of these people have nowhere else to go.”
Tonelotto told The Post he was discussing “the difficulties we are encountering with senior citizens” with Greenwich House.
“Nothing has been said or decided,” Tonelotto said.
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