Ninety Year Old Shoots Herself After Foreclosure

Cincinnati, OHAmid the talk of economic bailouts, takeovers and mergers from Wall Street and Washington, two shots rang out in Ohio, possibly an omen of what is to come. While the big wigs in Washington figure out what to do about the economic crisis, including the failures of AIG, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, individual homeowners who risk losing everything are left with nowhere to turn following the US home mortgage crisis.

The two shots in this case were fired by Addie Polk, a 90 year old woman who was being evicted from her home of 38 years on October 2. As police came to her door to serve her with an eviction notice, Polk shot herself twice in her upper body. She survived her shooting and is being treated but the result could have been much worse.

According to a local police spokesman, the woman, "fell prey to some predatory lending company or financial institution," in the past few years. Deputies tried to serve the woman's eviction notice over 30 times before she shot herself.

In the wake of the shooting some questions must be asked: How did things get so bad, not just for this woman, but in general? How are individual homeowners supposed to survive these times, especially with home foreclosure rates at record highs? How is it fair that the massive financial institutions receive bailouts but homeowners, who work hard to keep a roof over their heads, are left to fend for themselves?

Addie Polk may get a happy ending after all. According to CNN, Fannie Mae has said it will sign the property "outright" to Polk. However, it is unlikely that Fannie Mae and other mortgage companies will do the same for all the other homeowners who face impending foreclosure, which means many people will still be out of their home, if they haven't already been evicted.

Polk's situation caught the attention of at least some lawmakers. US Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, spoke about Polk during the floor debate of the US financial market rescue plan.

"This bill does nothing for the Addie Polks of the world," Kucinich said. "This bill fails to address the fact that millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, are facing the loss of their home." He went on to note that the bill will "take care of Wall Street…but democracy is going downhill."