After more than a half of a century teaching music and dance to children in East Harlem, a nonprofit cancelled its fall programming because of a tax bill and lien approaching $300,000.

Gloria DeNard turns to song and faith when asked about the future of that nonprofit organization Manna House Workshops. She founded the nonprofit music and dance organization 52 years ago.

"I felt that there was good in everybody everywhere, and I started Manna House to teach music and especially jazz," she said.

DeNard is a Juilliard-trained singer who started teaching music to students in the 1960s. Eventually, Chemical Bank and Riverside Church donated a five-story building on 106th Street near First Avenue to her nonprofit, so she could expand her programs.

"Our mission is to build the self-esteem, to create art that can possibly earn you an income," DeNard explained.

Thousands of students have come through the doors over the years, often paying what they can for private music and dance lessons, but in the last decade, the Manna House started falling behind on the building's property taxes.

Nonprofits are normally exempt from property taxes, but the top three floors are rental units that help support the operating costs downstairs. So 60 percent of the building is taxed, but she's had a difficult time keeping the apartments filled, and she didn't file the necessary paperwork with the city last year to keep the property tax exemption for the first two floors.

Now, there's a $278,831 city lien on the building.

DeNard admits it’s gotten to be too much for her.

"I'm ready to retire. Two years ago, I was ready to retire," she said.

The Manna House Workshops Board tells NY1 it stepped in in June and is looking to sell the building to pay off the back taxes and create a programming structure that allows the organization to operate without accumulating debt.  

"We believe that there's a power out there, and when you do something good, something good comes back to you," DeNard said.

And it has. After NY1 asked the city about the tax lien, this statement:

"After further reviewing this matter, the Department of Finance is pulling this property from the lien sale which will provide them (Manna House Workshops) additional time to renew their exemption and avoid the tax lien sale process next year."
 
"That's marvelous. That's wonderful. Oh my goodness. There is a god," said DeNard.