Legal Services of New York plans to file a lawsuit Friday against the nation’s second largest charity, the Salvation Army, in an effort to save affordable housing for women.

For decades, the Salvation Army has housed low-income female residents in two single room occupancy buildings in Midtown East, the Parkside Evangline and the Ten-Eyck Troughton. Now, the nonprofit organization wants to sell the buildings and evict nearly 100 women, many of whom are elderly.

According to the Salvation Army’s director of communications, Laura DeBuys, it is no longer fiscally responsible to provide housing in affluent areas of Manhattan. The charity intends to redirect money from the sale of the buildings to “expand programs in needy areas.”

When the Salvation Army bought the buildings in 1954 and 1963, it used money donated by Florence Ten-Eyck, who specified that her gift should be used to support working women of moderate means.

Tenants have organized to fight the eviction with the assistance of state Senator Liz Krueger, Assemblymen Richard Gottfried and Brian Kavanagh, and City Council members Daniel Garodnick and Rosie Mendez. Because many of the tenants qualify as low income, Legal Services has agreed to handle the case.

The lawsuit seeks an immediate stay so that the residents are not forced out in the winter weather while the case proceeds.

As a charity, the Salvation Army is exempt from rent-stabilization laws, which would normally give tenants protection from eviction. Legal Services will argue that the organization should not benefit from its tax-exempt status, as the sale of the two buildings will bring in a hefty profit. The sales could fetch in excess of $100 million, according to Ms. Krueger’s office.