Suicide attempt shows lenders can cancel mortgage debt

Mortgage guarantor Fannie Mae recently cancelled the mortgage debt of 90-year-old Addie Polk of Akron, Ohio. Fannie Mae did not do this out of kindness. It was shamed into action after Polk attempted to kill herself while local sheriffs were delivering a notice of eviction.

Fannie Mae could not care less about 90-year-old Addie Polk until she tried to kill herself.

Polk had been living in her house since 1970. She purchased it with her late husband, a retired rubber worker, who died in 1995. Later, Polk was deceived by predatory lender Countrywide Home Loan into refinancing her mortgage. Countrywide swindled Polk into taking home equity loans just to get out of her underlying mortgage debt. Countrywide filed to foreclose Polk’s house in 2007 and sold her home to Fannie Mae, which decreed that Polk must be evicted by Oct. 1.

That day, Polk shot herself twice in the chest. She survived the shooting and is now recovering in the hospital. Fannie Mae, worried about “bad press,” decided to hand over the property deed to Polk.

The plight of Addie Polk shows that big banks and lending corporations have the ability immediately alleviate the burden of debt off workers’ backs. All they have to is cancel the debt and give workers the deeds to their homes. Workers can take that lesson from Addie Polk’s misfortune and use it to turn the tables on the bankers and their system to make sure there are no more tragedies like this.

It should not take a terrible situation like Polk’s to prompt lenders to cancel mortgage debt. But under the profit-first laws of capitalism, lenders will try to eek out any money they can, whatever the potential human cost. No person should have to put two bullets in their upper torso to keep a roof over their head.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation demands a moratorium now on all foreclosures and evictions. Not one more tragedy should befall another person. Not one more working-class family should be threatened with losing their home or apartment. It is not only possible, but necessary to organize a movement and fight back against foreclosures and evictions.