The Cosac Homeless Assistance Center -- a 130-bed shelter near downtown Hollywood, and one of nearly two dozen social-service agencies in the neighborhood -- may expand its temporary housing and treatment programs to three additional locations in the immediate vicinity, the agency's director said Thursday.

Sean Cononie, chief executive of the Cosac Center, said he has been warned by the Hollywood Fire Department that the shelter on 1203 N. Federal Hwy. is in violation of safety codes.

Rooms that are supposed to be limited to four people currently house six to eight.

``I'm trying my very best not to expand,'' Cononie said. ``But we may have to.''

Cononie said he will meet with Hollywood fire marshalls Friday to discuss the violations and seek an alternative solution to expanding. He said he would like to remain at the current location, and possibly set up sleeping quarters in the parking lot.

Though Cononie has not purchased any property for the expansion, he said he has arranged financing to purchase three properties near the Royal Poinciana neighborhood.

The area, just north of downtown, is home to five agencies that facilitate as many as 22 social programs, including homeless shelters, a soup kitchen, drug treatment facilities, and a government probation and parole center.

Residents say the agencies attract vagrants, contribute to crime, and hurt property values.

``It's becoming a slum,'' said Norman Berube, president of the Royal Poinciana Landlord Association. Berube said he owns eight homes in the neighborhood.

City officials have tried for years to move some of the social-service agencies to other parts of Hollywood, but have yet to succeed.

Hollywood commissioners in July imposed a six-month moratorium on new shelters and other institutions in an area that includes most of the commercial areas east of Interstate 95 and west of Hollywood Beach.

But Vice Mayor Beam Furr said the moratorium, which is due to expire in January, may not apply to the Cosac Center, particularly if the nonprofit agency purchases and operates the properties as private residences or a hotel.

Furr said he has been leading an effort to move the Cosac Center and other social-service agencies in the neighborhood closer to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

``You have some vacant rental-car lots,'' he said. ``The question is whether or not we could find a place there that we could locate not only a place for people to stay, to shelter, but also to combine it with other things, such as if people need food, if they need some rehabilitation skills.

``I'm trying to find a more of a one-stop shopping for social services.''

The Cosac Center is funded by Cononie, private donations, rent paid by some shelter residents, and proceeds from sales of the Homeless Voice newspaper, which is published by Cosac.

Cononie said he used personal wealth derived from a legal settlement as seed money to create the foundation.

He considers charity his life's work, and said he won't settle for temporary solutions. If the Cosac Center is to move, he said, he will want to sign a 50-year lease.

``This has to be something that when I'm dead and buried, it's still going to exist,' he said.