PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Northeast Portland church is getting out of the housing business due to the changing market.

The Highland Christian Center on NE Glisan owns a duplex and 2 houses. For the past 10 years it has been renting them at below market rates. But the trustee board recently decided it can no longer afford the subsidies.

“We can’t support that, the offering plate cannot support that,” says Pastor Wilbert Gail Hardy.

Hardy says gentrification, rising property values and tenants missing payments are forcing the church to re-prioritize.

“Some tenants have stayed a year without paying rent.”

Hardy says the church offers many other social services, like feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless and tackling youth addiction. But that doesn’t matter to Cornelius Walter Smith, who received the eviction notice.

“If it was in the name of the Lord, I don’t really think I would have been thrown out,” Smith tells KOIN 6 News.

He and 2 other families have until June 15th to find a new place to live. “With the market being like it is, it’s going to be a difficult task,” says Smith. “They just want money, you know. They just want money.”

Pastor Hardy says they plan to sell the properties and return the money to the church.

Tenants told us Pastor Hardy is the owner of the properties, not the church. Hardy responded, “The church was in a situation where they had a lease-back. 10 years ago, when we first got into the church, the church needed the money to buy it. So, as I took my credit, went and purchased them and gave them back to the church. The church has always had them, all this time. So when they sell, the church has the first right to buy them back.”

Hardy is suffering from renal cancer that began in his kidneys. He said doctors told him he might only live until January, 2016. He says he is on ‘miracle time’ now.