The local weather was pretty dreary on Thursday. But the day brightened for 80 residents of Wesleyan Homes when they received news regarding their impending move from those Eastchester Drive apartments.

Just over a week ago, residents say, they learned that their rent-subsidized housing complex was being sold by its Providence Place owners to High Point University. Because of the shortness of notice about the sale, many of the residents feared they’d be forced to vacate the apartment complex without sufficient time to find other housing and to qualify for another government subsidy program that the sale would require.

The residents’ fears were relieved, however, when High Point University officials said Thursday that the university would not take possession of the apartment complex until the residents were relocated. And then, also on Thursday, U.S. housing officials said federal law gives the residents a year to find other housing after being notified of a sale.

Now, we aren’t going to see in a couple of weeks any of the residents – many of them elderly – sitting on the Eastchester Drive curb with their belongings trying to figure out what to do for housing. Of course, we never thought that scene would play out because there is only one realistic alternative for these residents, and that’s for new housing for them to be arranged. The only questions were – and still are – who will arrange it, how fast and where?

Officials at Providence Place, Wesleyan Homes, federal housing offices and HPU should all be working together to ease the transition for these 80 residents. These residents are due that courtesy.

A primary concern now is whether the High Point area has sufficient subsidized housing locales for these residents. We see a cloudy answer to that question right now. Let’s hope that the haze dissipates soon, and the clear answer is that High Point has plenty of housing for these residents.