West Palm Beach sues housing nonprofit to recover two debts

West Palm Beach housing nonprofit group Neighborhood Renaissance was hit with a foreclosure suit filed by the city earlier this month.

The city is looking to recover two debts from the past decade, but does not intend to actively pursue the foreclosure, a spokesperson said. This way, West Palm Beach can figure out a payment plan with the nonprofit and maintain its legal rights.

Terri Murray, director of Neighborhood Renaissance, said she expected an agreement for paying back more than $28,000, not a lawsuit.

The debts arose from both the renovation of the nonprofit’s office at 24th Street and Spruce Avenue, and the Village Center project. The nonprofit struggled to pay all its debt once the housing crisis struck.

“We literally had to make choices in which bills to pay and which relationships to preserve,” Murray told the Palm Beach Post. “We stopped payments and they stopped sending notices.” [Palm Beach Post] — Mark Maurer