A chapel that sheltered 9/11 rescue workers may be forced to close following a sharp rent rise to more than £200,000 because of high-end stores and luxury flats crowding the area.
The Roman Catholic St Joseph's Chapel in New York, which saw its rent increase to 264,000 dollars (£203,830) a year in 2014, is surviving on subsidies from the archdiocese.
The landlords offered a significant reduction in rent, said a spokesman for the developers who own the building, but parishioners said this is not nearly enough and fear the chapel will shut.
Parishioners are praying for a miracle to save the chapel.
It was used as a command centre - with rescue workers sleeping on its floors and priests celebrating Mass in a tent outside - after the attacks which destroyed the World Trade Centre on September 11 2001.
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