A blind woman in Indiana living on a limited income says if the land her house is on is taken out from underneath her, she’ll have nowhere to go. But despite the fact that she’s lived in the home for 55 years, she’s facing eviction because no one realized the land had been sold off years ago. Ah, bureaucracy.

ABC 7 tells the tale of the 67-year-old woman who lost her sight and her job years ago after getting an infection. She thought she’d live out her days in the home she’s been in since 1958, but there’s a problem: Her family bought the house from a church way back when, but the church still owned the land underneath it. The family just paid taxes on the house and rented the land.

In the 1970s, the woman was told that the land was sold to the town, so she started paying $10 a month in rent for the property.

“Back then you were able to have a house on a piece of property owned by somebody else and that is how this whole thing got snafued,” said the county treasurer (in an admirable use of “snafu” as a verb, might we add).

But unbeknownst to her, although she says she kept asking the town if it still owned the land, that tiny parcel was never sold to the town. Instead, it just stopped paying taxes on it, leading to the land selling in a tax sale for a mere $43.

“For some reason nobody told this lady and or anybody else the land was on a tax sale, consequently the man who bought it only paid $43 for land,” said the treasurer.

Now, the man who owns the land is reportedly taking the woman to court to evict her, unless she pays $300 a month in rent. That’s money she says she doesn’t have — but she also can’t afford to move.

“My income with a pension and social security is $1,000. Tell me where I’m going to find a place to rent,” she says.

Blind woman faces eviction from Indiana home over bureaucratic mistake [ABC 7]

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