The Island Affordable Housing Fund has decided after more than three years to cut its losses on the proposed Bradley Square redevelopment in Oak Bluffs and sell the property.

The fund’s executive director, T. Ewell Hopkins, confirmed the sale plan this week, saying the organization could no longer “responsibly” carry the mortgage, given the remote prospects of raising sufficient money to begin work on the project. A price has not yet been set.

“We feel, given the time frame it would take to raise the money, we can’t justify the associated costs,” Mr. Hopkins said this week.

“We purchased it for $900,000 and change; we have about a $750,000 mortgage on it right now. It costs us a little over $6,000 a month to service that debt and that makes it prohibitive for us to continue to try to raise the money to responsibly break ground.

“We don’t think it’s prudent to ask people to contribute money just to service debt,” he said.

The move comes as the fund struggles to meet other financial obligations. It has yet to pay some $40,000 to the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority for rent subsidies for May and June. And it remains unable to pay other commitments, including the administrative expenses of its sister body, the Island Housing Trust.

The decision on Bradley Square had been postponed until the end of the summer fund-raising season. But after what Mr. Hopkins described as a “dismal” summer for all Island charitable causes, including his, there were no options left.

The last hope had been the NAACP, which he said had been optimistic that a late summer fundraiser they staged would raise enough to retire the mortgage.

“They had their CEO and president Ben Jealous there and he was a phenomenal motivator, speaking to the audience that was there. But they just didn’t pack the house. And we needed a packed house,” Mr. Hopkins said.

“So, having given it the entire summer fund-raising season to see what we could do, and having given the NAACP as many opportunities as they asked for to find the money — and they now feel they’ve exhausted their wherewithal to raise funds for this project — it just doesn’t make sense to go on with it.

“We can’t carry it for another fall and winter in the hope of a better summer, to try to break ground,” Mr. Hopkins said.

Yet symbolically, ground was broken more than a year ago. Gov. Deval Patrick led a strong cast of dignitaries for a ceremony in August 2009, and spoke to the historic significance of the property, once owned by the Rev. Oscar E. Denniston and home of Bradley Memorial Church, the earliest African American church on Martha’s Vineyard.

It was the threat of potential demolition of the old house which spurred the fund to a last-minute fund-raising effort in 2007 to buy the property. About $200,000 was raised quickly.

The plan was to restore the old house and build two more structures to include eight affordable residential units, two residential studio spaces, a commercial space, a multi-purpose room, and an office, at a cost of some $5.3 million.

It was always controversial, and unfortunately timed; the purchase was made just before the real estate market fell, the economy turned sour and charitable donations dropped. It is dubious that the half-acre property would sell now for anything close to the $905,000 paid at the top of the market, most real estate experts agree.

“We’re just hoping there’s enough to pay back the bank,” said Mr. Hopkins.

He said the fund had been meeting regularly with the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank, which holds the mortgage on Bradley Square.

“They have been phenomenally supportive, but we know it’s just not responsible for the Island Affordable Housing Fund to own Bradley Square anymore.

“And nobody is raising their hand and saying they want to advance that project.

“So why would we continue trying to maintain a mistake from the past?”

The Bradley Square development has gone through several permutations in efforts first to placate opposition and then to attract funds.

In 2008, when the future of the project looked brighter, Oak Bluffs voters backed a $400,000 spending article from Community Preservation Act money for the affordable housing component of the project, and at that time Mr. Hopkins said the total raised was about $700,000, including that $400,000.

Then late last year, it became clear the fund was in financial trouble when it suddenly announced it could not meet its commitment to pay rental assistance. And last December, the Oak Bluffs Community Preservation Committee voted without dissent to deny a $400,000 request from the fund for the project, leading Mr. Hopkins to suggest yet another redesign, without the historic renovation component.

Since then, there has been little progress, as the fund has sought to meet its other financial obligations.

Over the summer, it was forced to a short sale of a house in its Jenney Way development. It got about $400,000 from the property, and increased the size of the Bradley Square mortgage to cover the loss, which Mr. Hopkins said was somewhat under $50,000.

The fund also succeeded in passing off the portion it had previously contributed to the regional housing authority’s rental assistance plan — about $20,000 a month — to the Island’s town governments.

So as of the start of July, that burden was lifted from the fund. Yet it still owes the authority about $40,000 which was due for May and June.

David Vigneault, executive director of the housing authority, said the landlords to whom the money was due have been patient, and no tenants have lost housing as a result.

“But it’s IOUs still,” said Mr. Vig-neault, adding: “Certainly it’s a surprise and a disappointment to everyone here at the housing authority and at the fund. That has not been resolved as of yet. They are still on the hook for it, still planning to resolve it.”

Other expenses still have to be met, too, and at the moment the trust is struggling to meet them.

“We were historically the sole source of the administrative expense of the Island Housing Trust. We had a monthly commitment there that we have not been able to fulfill,” said Mr. Hopkins.

“We were in partnership with Habitat for Humanity on 250 State Road [in West Tisbury]. They have not made a formal request for subsidy for that effort, because they know we do not have the money to make it.”

Mr. Hopkins said he is the only person still on the payroll of the fund. Over the summer he did not organize any fundraising events, lest the fund should “lose money trying to make money.”

He said he was not alone, noting that most fund-raising events held by other nonprofits did not make money this summer.

And he did not see the economic climate allowing for greater fund-raising in the near future. Yet Mr. Hopkins, who inherited the leadership of the fund just as the mismanagement of his predecessor became apparent, said he was resolved to battle on to correct the mistakes, including Bradley Square.

There is an identified need for 1,300 affordable homes, either for ownership or rent, and the Island has less than 400, he said. And if the fund folds, there is no one else to step into the breach.

“What makes me struggle — and I’m working diligently on — is that critical need of the community,” Mr. Hopkins said.