She took out a 30-year, 6.375 percent mortgage for $45,620 four years ago when the house was appraised at $31,230.

That move put her in a position that, according to Deutsche Bank, up to 40 percent of borrowers, or 20 million households nationwide, could face within 12 to 18 months: Suddenly Polk owed more on her house than it was worth.

While many households ran into that problem when once-soaring house prices declined, there was no bubble on LaCroix Avenue, located in a city whose population dropped 4 percent since 2000 amid declining manufacturing.

In the midst of the House debate on the economic rescue package, Kucinich made some calls about Polk's plight and rushed to the House floor to denounce the foreclosure action against her.

The Cleveland Democrat and two-time presidential candidate said anyone could have known that offering a mortgage more than the home's value to a woman in her 80s was setting her up to fail.

Fannie Mae, which had assumed the Countrywide Home Loan mortgage on Polk's home, believes a reversal of the foreclosure was appropriate given the circumstances, a Fannie Mae spokesman said. Fannie Mae filed the foreclosure Sept. 6, 2007.

Garrett said Polk's story would make older people worry.

"The same thing could happen to us," said her husband, Elisha Garrett, 74, a retired tractor factory worker.