The Meg Perry Center, by its own definition, is a “community space in the heart of the Old Port.”

But as of last week, everything the center owns is in a storage space off the peninsula.

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Kara Oster, left, and other board members of the Meg Perry Center discuss the center’s recent ouster from a building on Market Street in Portland over a sublease issue. The organization provides a communal space for artists and activists to meet and work together. Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Less than a month after moving into the basement of a sandwich shop on Market Street in May, the center was told its sublease was never approved by the building’s owner and it had 90 days to leave.

Board members of the volunteer-run community center say they’re taking a break from trying to find a new space for now, but that doesn’t mean they’re going away.

“They can kick us out of every single business we go into, but they can’t stop us from existing,” said Jacqui Deveneau, a member of the center’s advisory board.

Homelessness is not new to the Meg Perry Center, which developed into a meeting place, resource library and event venue before being forced to move from its original location on Congress Street in October. That building was to be remodeled to attract more upscale tenants. A cocktail lounge is scheduled to go into the spot.

The center went about six months without a permanent address before moving into the Market Street space.

The gentrification of Portland has made it increasingly hard for the Meg Perry Center and places like it to have a presence downtown, board members said last week. That’s a problem when accessibility to everyone is a core principle.

Founded in 2007 to promote peace, justice, sustainability and community, the center has been an incubator for co-ops, an office for immigrant groups and a meeting space for social movements. At different times and on different days, it’s a coffeehouse, a concert venue, a library and an art gallery.

Among its volunteers are young adults living in group homes who derive purpose and pride from the work they do there. No alcohol is allowed, and people pay what they can to attend events. Proceeds are split between the performers and the center, which uses the money to pay rent and utilities.

Everything else the center owns, from couches to kitchen supplies, has been donated – including the storage unit where it was all taken last week.

Volunteers from the center got together last week for a barbecue and pool party as a reward for finishing the move out of Market Street and a celebration of the work they did there.

“It’s a bittersweet kind of thing,” said board member Kara Oster, wearing a pink T-shirt that said “Make Positive Change.”

Despite the difficulties the center has faced, Oster said the people behind it are committed to staying active and optimistic. She said that was the way of the young activist for whom the center was named. Meg Perry was a Portland woman who died in a bus accident while in New Orleans helping victims of Hurricane Katrina.

“She was always positive and always trying to help somebody and always working to make the world a better place,” Oster said. “We’re trying to embody and uphold that spirit and mentality.”

That’s why the board is inclined not to take legal action over its recent lease issue, despite feeling mistreated, members said.

John Branson, the center’s attorney, said a lease agreement with Market Street Eats owner Matt Roy expressly required that he have permission to sublet the basement from the building’s owner, Eric Cianchette, who also owns the Portland Regency Hotel & Spa across the street. But a few weeks after the center moved into the building, Branson received an email from Cianchette’s attorney, David Perkins, saying Roy never got that permission, making the lease invalid.

Neither Perkins nor Roy returned calls seeking comment.

Board members had arranged to move in with the Community Television Network on Congress Street in mid-August, but that deal fell through at the last minute. That’s when they decided to give themselves a break.

“We all have full-time jobs, so on top of those jobs and the other activities we do, we just don’t have the energy ourselves,” Oster said about starting another search for a new home. “Where we can put our energy is rebuilding the positivity of the Meg Perry Center and have that go outwards toward the community.”

That means hosting events at other venues, organizing flash mobs throughout Portland or simply making their presence known by sporting the center’s T-shirts.

That’s the beauty of the work of the Meg Perry Center, said Deveneau.

“It’s borderless, it’s boundless, it’s energy that’s outside of walls,” she said. “Watch for us.”

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