How a $134 tax bill got an elderly Vietnam vet evicted
Washington Post
By Dylan Matthews
Published: September 9
The series begins with the plight of Bennie Coleman, an elderly Vietnam veteran who suffers from dementia. “He would forget to pay bills or buy food,” Sallah, Cenziper and Rich write. “His next-door neighbor would often bring him plates of chicken and carrots.”
In the summer of 2011, Coleman, then 76, was foreclosed upon and forced out of the home he’d lived in for two decades. The whole mess was started by a $134 property tax bill from 2006 — a paltry sum next to the $197,000 value of Coleman’s Northeast Washington home, which he owned outright. The city placed a lien on the property and sold the lien to investors. Those investors then imposed thousands in legal fees (featuring hourly rates of up to $450), interest on the original debt and other charges.
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