PITTSFIELD — Heather Reed knows in her heart that the people of Pittsfield are caring and compassionate. Actually, she’s betting her neighbor’s life on it.

Reed has issued a challenge: Help her neighbor find a home. “I know this is a loving community. Everyone just needs to put their arms out and hug an old man,” she said Tuesday night. Reed is trying to find a small piece of property where she can relocate her elderly neighbor, who will be evicted from his home of 52 years in September.

Her neighbor, Selwyn Small, lives a hermitlike life in a dilapidated farmhouse on Route 100. Surrounding the towering house, which is falling in on itself, are rolling fields and a small stand of trees. The winding Sebasticook River passes by the back door.

Small has lived in the house for 52 years, farming the land and selling vegetables on the side of the road. But at age 77, Small’s health is failing, said Reed. He has no family and cannot keep up the house, which has holes in the floor and rotting roof timbers.

His situation is complicated. Small no longer owns the home. In January 1992, he sold the farmstead to Les Lovley of Newport. The deed allowed him to live in the home until June of that year, when he was supposed to find another residence.

He never left. Lovley said he did not have the heart to kick the elderly man out, so he just let him stay. Although they reached a gentleman’s agreement that Small could stay in the home as long as he paid the yearly taxes, Lovley himself has been paying those for the past six years.

But the town of Pittsfield has an ordinance that requires landlords to provide safe housing. Lovley is in violation of that law, and the town has begun action against him. Lovley will be required either to fix up the home — which is impossible — or evict his tenant.

“I don’t have the heart to kick the fellow out, and that building is unsafe. Since the town has condemned it, I’m in a bad position. There is nothing I can do. He has to leave,” said Lovley.

“It’s not safe for Selwyn to live there any longer,” Town Manager D. Dwight Dogherty said Wednesday. The town’s code enforcement officer and health officer both have inspected the building and determined it is unfit for habitation. It lacks running water and toilet facilities. Because of a faulty heating system, Small reportedly slept in a car several nights last winter.

Small won’t go. He has threatened to jump off the Burnham dam with his beloved dog at his side. Alternative housing had been found earlier this year in Fairfield, but the dog could not go. So Small again refused to leave.

It was about this time that Heather Reed, a neighbor up the road who has been Small’s friend for years, returned from California and discovered Small’s plight. “He will be evicted in September,” she said Tuesday night. “I am putting out a call for help.”

Reed said Small should not be forced to leave Pittsfield to find housing. “He has lived here all his life. He is a part of our family here in this community,” she said.

Reed began a search for a trailer and located a 40-year-old fixer-upper. “But we need a piece of land to put it on. The land needs water and a septic system,” she said.

Stacy Fitts, a member of the Community Christmas Club, said this is a perfect opportunity for the town of Pittsfield to show what it is made of. “This man is not well. This is nearly the end for him. We need to come forward. We, as Christians, as neighbors, often talk a good game. Well, here is our chance to prove just what kind of people we are,” he said.

Fitts is putting out a call for help. Anyone knowing of a piece of property in Pittsfield that could be donated, temporarily, to the Christmas Club may contact Fitts at 487-5641. Any other ideas to help out Small will be appreciated, said Fitts.