A 90-year-old Ohio woman, facing eviction from the home she has lived in for 38 years, shot and wounded herself this week, becoming a grim symbol of the US home mortgage crisis.

Addie Polk was found lying on the floor of her home with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to her shoulder when police came to the home on Wednesday to serve an eviction notice, Akron police spokesman Lt Rick Edwards said on Friday.

Polk survived the shooting and is being treated in a hospital.

It was the latest attempt by sheriff's deputies to evict Polk from her modest single-family home because she could not keep up with her mortgage.

"It appears they're evicting her over her mortgage. She's lived in the house, the neighbours said, something like 38 years, and in the last couple of years fell prey to some predatory lending company or financial institution," Edwards said.

Local news reports said deputies had tried to serve Polk's eviction notice more than 30 times before Wednesday's shooting.

Home foreclosure rates are at record highs in the United States, in many cases because buyers with adjustable interest rates could not keep up with sharp increases in monthly payments.

The foreclosure crisis has sparked a wider housing market downturn and is at the heart of the US financial crisis.