An agreement between a low income Elmira housing complex and the City of Elmira to keep residents safe falls through.

For the past two years, the owners of Woodlawn Court, formerly known as Hathorn Court, contracted to pay the City for two Elmira Police Officers to patrol and keep peace within this neighborhood.

But 18 News has confirmed that Woodlawn Court is $140,000 dollars behind in payments for their contract and those two officers have been pulled from duty there.

Joe Duffy, the City Councilman for the third district, says he is hopeful an agreement can be made to continue this successful program within the Woodlawn Court community.

“Since we had our officers over there, Woodlawn Court was no longer in the news,” said Duffy.

“Before that every other day there was something going on in there and we put our officers in there — they did a wonderful job, they did exactly what they were supposed to do. They cleaned it up.”

Duffy says the patrols were successful in reducing crime in the Woodlawn Court community.

But there’s another problem at the complex — a decrease in occupancy there.

Elmira City Manager Kimberlee Middaugh says they are in talks right now to try and renew the contract for next year, which includes getting the money still owed from last year.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on this developing story.