The owner of a boarding house for troubled women is pleading with Waterbury officials to give her more time to pay off back taxes before the city goes ahead with an auction, The Associated Press reports.
The city intends to auction off the Austin House Thursday night because the owner, Camera Quebec of Cheshire, has failed to pay more than $13,000 in property taxes.
Quebec says that if the apartment house is sold off, women who seek refuge there from drug abuse, domestic abuse and prostitution will be back on the streets. She says the women have nowhere else to go.
City records show Quebec was stuck with an old tax bill that is usually paid by the seller, and her mortgage deal was supposed to pay her city taxes but hasn’t.
City officials say there are other places in town for women seeking help.
