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Rita Alie-Kirkpatrick wanted to spend the rest of her life in her Wildwood-area split-level, the modest east side home where she lived for three decades and raised two children.

Now, the 64-year-old is renting a two-bedroom apartment blocks away after being evicted over about $6,000 in unpaid back taxes that, with interest and penalties, ballooned to more than $21,000.

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“It was like my life came crashing down. I’ve been there 30 years. I put all my money into it … It was like I fell into a hole, basically,” Alie-Kirkpatrick said Tuesday.

Alie-Kirkpatrick had been facing the prospect of eviction since June 2018, when the City of Saskatoon assumed the title to her home over her taxes, which went into arrears in late 2013.

She contends that health problems forced her to make excruciating financial decisions while collecting social assistance; her lawyer has said the city refused a proposal to pay back the money.