Middle schoolers come to Manhattan Youth's community center at 55 Warren St. to have fun and hang out with their friends-much like kids in any other after-school program in the city. But unlike most programs, this one requires students to do their homework first, and provides the precious academic help they need to do well in school.

		It is just that structure and extra support that parents say they are going to sorely miss when the center shuts down. Late last month, Manhattan Youth director Bob Townley announced to staff and parents that his third-floor community space on Warren Street, which also houses the organization's offices, will be closing for good in June, after just two and a half years. With the building's owner refusing to renew his lease, and rents being what they are in Tribeca, Townley said he has no place to reopen when school resumes in September. Calling this the most difficult decision he has had to make since founding Manhattan Youth in 1986, Townley said he told several members of his 100-person staff that they would be laid off because there is no space for their programs. "This is the first time Manhattan Youth has had to retrench," said Townley, whose organization also runs after-school programs in P.S. 234 and P.S./I.S. 89, as well as the Downtown Basketball League and a day camp, all primarily for children in Lower Manhattan. "I think the staff doesn't believe it," he said. "They're still hoping I can pull one out of the hat." If there is a "hat," it is the same one that many other Downtown non-profits and other organizations are reaching into: the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. The LMDC will soon decide how to allocate about $1 billion in federal funds. Townley said he has his eye on space in a building at 72 Warren St., and estimated he would need $350,000 for each of the next three years to
create a community center there. After that he expects to move into community space provided by the developer of a proposed residential building on Site 5C, behind P.S. 234. If money doesn't come from the LMDC for interim space, he said, it's not likely to come at all. "We're getting foundation rejections like you wouldn't believe," Townley said. "We are perceived as a well-to-do community that doesn't need this kind of help. When I tell people that 20 percent of the residents of Battery Park City are low income, they don't believe it." "They can't let this happen," said Angel Florio, a single mother living in Gateway Plaza in Battery Park City. "It's been such a successful, wonderful program." Florio said it would be "devastating" if her 12-year-old daughter Edy couldn't go to the center after school, and that replacing her daughter's afterschool help with a tutor would be a financial strain. "I feel like running into the streets and alerting people," she said.