A 94-Year Old Grandmother Fights Back After Government Sold Her Home—And Kept The Profit

In 1999, Geraldine Tyler, then a 70-year-old retired county worker, bought her own apartment—a modest one-bedroom condo in Minneapolis, Minnesota, near a park and public transit. She lived there for a decade, dutifully paying her real estate taxes, until worries about rising crime and an incident involving a neighbor led her to make a hasty move across town to a senior community in a safer neighborhood.

The move was good for her peace of mind but not for her pocketbook. She couldn't keep up with the bills for both places and...