90 Year-Old Woman Shoots Self As Sheriff's Deputies Try to Evict Her From Foreclosed Home

As the House of Representatives pass the $700 billion bailout bill, a 90 year old woman, Addie Polk, shot herself shot herself as sheriff's deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed home. She has essentially become a symbol of the nation's home mortgage crisis Friday. People, let's be realistic, who would give this woman amortgage at her age? Unless she is rich, that doesn't seem to make much sense. She would realistically not live out a 30-year mortgage.

Fannie Mae foreclosed on the Akron, Ohio, home of Addie Polk, 90, after acquiring the mortgage in 2007. Ms. Polk is being treated at Akron General Medical Center after shooting herself at least twice in the upper body Wednesday afternoon, her city councilman said.

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, mentioned Polk on the House floor Friday during debate over the latest economic rescue proposal.

"This bill does nothing for the Addie Polks of the world," Kucinich said after telling her story. "This bill fails to address the fact that millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, are facing the loss of their home. This bill will take care of Wall Street, and the market may go up for a few days, but democracy is going downhill." Hello people!

Neighbor Robert Dillon used a ladder to enter a second-story window of Polk's home after he and the deputies heard bangs inside, Dillon told CNN affiliate WEWS-TV in Cleveland, Ohio.

"I just thought she may have fell or couldn't get up or something," he told WEWS. "I didn't know [she had shot herself] until I got in there. And even when I got there, she was breathing, but she wasn't saying anything to me. I knew she needed help then."

Dillon said he saw blood when he put his hand on Polk's shoulder. "There's a lot of people like Miss Polk right now. That's the sad thing about it," said Akron City Council President Marco Sommerville, who had met Polk before and rushed to the scene when contacted by police. "They might not be as old as her, some could be as old as her. This is just a major problem."

According to CNN, in 2004, Polk took out a 30-year, 6.375 percent mortgage for $45,620 with a Countrywide Home Loan office in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The same day, she also took out an $11,380 line of credit. Over the next couple of years Polk missed payments on the 101-year-old home and in 2007 Fannie Mae assumed the mortgage and later filed for foreclosure.

Deputies had tried to serve Polk's eviction notice more than 30 times before Wednesday's incident, Sommerville said. She never came to the door, but the notes the deputies left would always disappear, so they knew she was inside and ambulatory, he said.

What should a 90 year-old woman do? File for bankruptcy protection? This bill must give relief to people who are facing foreclosure. You can't bail out the big banks and level Main Street out in the cold. If the government can bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, surely they can do something for the middle class. The loan officer who originated this loan ought to be held accountable too.

This is awful. I can't even begin to tell you how bad we're letting things get when we're kicking old women out of houses that are being forclosed on and all they can do from being homeless is shoot themselves. They deserve more dignity.

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