Up to 335 low-income families may be forced out of their apartments this winter because federal housing officials have refused to extend assistance to the nonprofit corporations that own the two buildings they live in, lawmakers and housing activists are expected to announce today.

Senator Schumer and Rep. Charles Rangel, both Democrats, will be joined by representatives of the companies – the Reverend Calvin Butts for the Abyssinian Development Corporation and Andrew Reicher for the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board – in denouncing the department’s decision, which has stripped the buildings of more than a third of their funding.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development classified the Ennis Frances Houses in Harlem and the Gates-Patchen apartment complex in Brooklyn as “severely distressed” and transferred ownership of each to one of the two nonprofit housing corporations.

Since then, the department has declined to extend its contracts to pay project-based assistance to the buildings’ new owners, even though it continued to do so after the ownership transfer.

The director of organization and policy for the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, Dina Levy, said that the Gates-Patchen apartments, which the board oversees, has lost 40% of its funding as a result of the department’s decision.

The Department of Housing originally gave the corporation a $4 million grant. Now it has been forced to take out loans to cover its monthly deficit of $23,000.

“It makes no sense to give a $4 million grant and then rob the project out of the other side,” Ms. Levy said. She said that without the funding, it was difficult to pay for the building’s basic maintenance, let alone the repairs it needs. The interest payments on the debt drive up costs even more, she added.

When the leases of federally assisted buildings are transferred through foreclosure, Mr. Levy said, HUD often stops providing assistance to the project as a whole and provides vouchers to the buildings’ tenants instead. However, she added, it requires tenants’ apartments to meet housing code standards, which at present they do not. As a result, she said, tenants may be forced to leave.

“We see the worst possible scenario, and it looks almost likely,” she said.

Senator Schumer introduced an amendment to the recently passed appropriations bill for the Department of Housing for fiscal year 2006 that would mandate the department renew contracts for project-based assistance in such situations. The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board filed a federal lawsuit in October claiming the Department of Housing was legally obligated to renew such contracts even without Mr. Schumer’s amendment. The suit has not yet been decided.

Spokesmen for the department could not be reached for comment last night.