Addie Polk refuses to leave

From the Akron Beacon-Journal:

At the age of 90, Addie Polk found herself in foreclosure this week, about to be forced from the home she's lived in for nearly 40 years.

So, with a gun in her hand, the Akron widow apparently shot herself in the chest Wednesday afternoon as deputies were knocking on her door with eviction papers in hand.

Amazingly? She lived. She's in the hospital, though nobody knows where she'll go after that.

Comments

[Jellybean]

She could make more than 3 years worth of payments with JUST the money she took out in cash. (57K at 6.375% over 30yrs = $355/mo payment) $11,380 of that they gave her in cash. Pretty good deal when you're 90 years old!
She's not a victim of the mortgage crisis. It just looks like she had some mental problems. It's sad that there was no one around to help her with her finances - but it's not the lender's fault in this case.

[Ni]

This was predatory lending at it’s best. What person in their right mind would give a 30-year mortgage to an 86 year old? Not to mention they gave $45,000 on a house which was only workt $28,000.

Yes she should shoulder some of the blame, but the underwriter and the loan officer should be fired.

I’m guessing she was struggling to make ends meet and figured what the heck I probably won’t live too much longer so take the money if they give it to me and run.

[Tim]

sad at they should give older people like this house breaks through social security.

[Susie]

You don't know the facts. She may have been "talked into" taking the loan. Maybe her children or grandchildren talked her into it, for their own financial benefit.
At 86 or 87 years of age, for Countrywide to even GIVE her a 30-year mortgage is outrageous, predatory lending and they ought to be investigated for it.
I feel nothing buy sorrow for this woman. 90 years old and this happening to her! Shameful!

[aqua]

She should have just shot towards the officers, then she would have been set for life...

[The_Golfer]

No kids, this might have been a good place for a reverse mortgage unless that is predatory also.

[gulfprincess1951]

Is there an address for the bank? Can we send a donation to help her get caught up? Or maybe even pay off the thing if enough people send money.

[TJ]

Lenders can't discriminate on the basis of age. So if an elderly person wants a 30-year mortgage, the lender must treat the application the same as for a younger person. Same as they can't consider race or sex.

[Mel W.]

Fannie Mae forgives loan for woman who shot herself

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/03/eviction.suicide.attempt/index.html

[terrible]

How sad. It's a shame when people have to go through this, especially at 90 years old. Many 90 year olds are physically, mentally, or professionally unable to work full-time. Sure, she took out the mortgage and should never have shot herself-- and applied for other options (Medicare? Welfare? Local charitable donations? Anything). Finances are a lousy reason to injure oneself. Now, she'll just have a huge hospital bit to boot-- if she lives. Poor thing.

I hope she recovers well and has many more years in her home-- or a better one than that.

[Kirik Jenness]

What utter bullshit. So, all one has to do in order to not pay their bills is simply shoot one's self a couple times, and they're off the hook?

She should have to pay her bills just like everyone else.

[cpKallister]

Need to borrow a gun, terrible?
I'll lend you one.

[cpKallister]

Excuse me terrible....
I meant to lend it to Kirik.

[Michele Brown]

This is a shame! Not only is it immoral, but it's nearly criminal. No, I don't think she should get a totally free ride but the gov't is giving $700+ billion for the greed that resulted in a bailout, billions for Fannie and Freddie, and billions for Iraq then I think in exceptional cases like these they can find a measely $50K Addie Polk who is 90 years old and likely paid taxes for most of her life! Should not she be the benefactor of the bail out when her tax dollars helped to fund it? Wasn't that the point?

[W.C. Varones]

Thank goodness she survived.

She could have been number 46 in Greenspan's Body Count.

[Kristen]

Every one of these people involved in negotiating this mortgage in any way belong in prison - and no Club Fed, either.

True, mortgage lenders can't discrminate on the basis of age, but they can look at income, ability to repay, assets, etc. Addie Polk couldn't possibly have qualified; they were just trying to rip off an old woman.

For those of you who have no sympathy for her, what kind of shape were your grandparents in at age 80+? Both of my grandfathers were incompetent with Alzheimer's by that age. One grandma didn't live as long as Addie Polk. The other was basically still mentally there by age 80, but dependent on her children to supplement social security so she could get by financially.

If Countrywide had done to my grandma what they did to Addie Polk, my brothers would have tracked the lender down and killed him.

[anon]

I recently read news reports that Fannie Mae was forgiving a mortgage debt because a 90 year old woman attempted suicide.

Please say this isn't so and the news reports are false.

This is wrong on so many levels.

First, the moral hazard is of the highest variety. How many more people will resort to shooting themselves or family members or other violence as a result of rewarding this behavior?

Secondly, she made poor financial decisions that should not be rewarded. If there was fraud or predatory lending involved, then investigate that. But she should not be gifted the house for no reason other than she tried to off herself.

Thirdly, as a taxpayer and hence a forced investor in Fannie Mae, I believe the company has a responsibility to me to at least try to maximize my return on investment (and not give houses away), and certainly should not reward those that made bad financial decisions, and again I surely don't want my money rewarding criminal violence in and around foreclosed homes!

Are we going to leave this kind of socialist/fascist future to our children?

Which grandmas get free homes? The ones that almost die from gunshots or the ones that almost or do die from stabbing themselves? What if she did die? Would you take the house then, or give it to the estate? What about middleaged people or men? Do they get free homes? How about lesser injuries? It is a slippery slope indeed!

A more rational decision would have been to try to work out loan modification of some sort in accordance with a companywide policy or protocol, to be fair to everyone, to try to keep her in the home and paying what she could. That would be a win-win-win for the lady, for Fannie Mae, and for taxpayers. If this were not feasible, contract law should not be ignored, and the house should be taken to avoid all of the above moral, ethical, and financial hazards I described.

[Ticked in MI]

I am so sick of paying for STUPID PEOPLE! I have to help pay her mortgage through higher interest costs to cover bad debt expense of financial institutions, part of her medical costs through higher insurance premiums (guaranteed she ain't paying her medical bills either!), and continue to support her through her and her deceased husband's social security.

And to those who ask why is a 90 yr-old was given a 30 yr mortgage? Regulation B--Equal Credit Opportunity Act. You CANNOT deny a loan simply because of age. There would be just as many irate commenters if the headline read "90 yr old's heat shut off due to late payment; denied mortgage loan due to age."

[Sands]

At the age of 86 she suddenly needed to gather up 57 Grand!

Her kids just got a new escalde with spinners.

I paid for it.

[Richard]

Hey I'm all for this. What's a little sucking chest wound in exchange for a $140,000 mortgage free house? I say we all do it! Yippie, I love socialism. I love this new government. Free, houses, free health care. Do you think if I blew off my foot with a shotgun I could get a new Benz? I mean if I did I couldn't walk I'd need transportation right? Someone would feel sorry for me right? Where does it stop?
Richard

[Richard]

And think about this... What about the poor son of a bitch, honest business man, who probably purchased this property at an auction with his own hard earned money? Legally, how do they void his contract? Where does he do to get his time and money back? I hope he sues.

Richard

[George Bush]

Bleeding heart liberals just do not understand it's socialism to take care of old people past their useful life and can not grasp the Ayn Rand kind of conservatism where it is better to put the money in a rich bankers hands than feed an old woman beyond her profitable period of life. Republicanism insures we maximize profits and concentrate wealth in the hands of more ruthless people, people willing to dump the bodies over the side and those able to make the decisions on who lives and who dies based on their economic prowess. We need the wisdom of Phil Gramm, who says it best;

* "Most people don't have the luxury of living to be 80 years old, so it's hard for me to feel sorry for them." - (in response to a statement that a Social Security proposal would hurt people over 80.)[31]

* "I recently told Ed Whitacre [former CEO of AT&T, who retired with a $158 million pay package] he was probably the most exploited worker in American history".[32]

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness."

The hard cold truth is we have to get rid of old people that can no longer pay their way. It is not the bankers fault the woman was mentally defenseless and hadn't the wits or ability to go back to work. This is exactly how efficient republican capitalism© is supposed to work.