AUBURN – Grace Mortimer is doing lots of things lately that she swears she was no good at doing.

Like paying bills on time. Living on a budget. Saving money.

Add to that buying a home and managing a renovation project. Mortimer, with a lot of help and a lot of hand-holding from the City of Auburn, expects to step into her new house in November. For the single mother of five, it’s hard to believe.

“I never thought I could get this far,” she said. “I mean, I’m poor. And here I am.”

Mortimer’s family is one of 12 to qualify for assistance through Auburn’s low-income home-buying program since it started in 2001. It uses federal Housing and Urban Development money earmarked for affordable housing to help low-income people and encourage downtown redevelopment.

Each buyer can qualify for up to 10 different loans or grant. That includes a 7-percent standard mortgage through Coastal Enterprises Inc. and three city loans. Buyers pay back the first interest-free, 20-year city loan and the other two are forgiven.

Buyers must also purchase a house in one of three Auburn neighborhoods – New Auburn, downtown or the residential area north of Union Street.

Low point

The experience has taught Mortimer some lessons in self-reliance and self-respect.

Her family was at its lowest point about a year ago. Her youngest daughter, Destiny, had just been born. All six shared a second-floor, three-bedroom apartment on New Auburn’s 4th Street with her then-boyfriend. Her salary from Alternative Services of New England was their only income.

Then the boyfriend left, taking Mortimer’s checkbook and $50 in savings with him. He proceeded to write thousands of dollars worth of bad checks. She paid back what she could.

About that time, she received a letter from the city advertising the program.

“I replied,” she said. “I didn’t think anything would happen, not really. That’s not the way my life was going.”

To her surprise, her application was approved – with conditions. She had to fix her credit, resolve the bad checks and refinance her car to get a lower monthly payment.

“I did the work; that’s the best part,” she said. “And it was hard. A thousand times, I thought it was too hard. You have to understand, I always lived paycheck to paycheck. That’s how I lived and the only way I knew.”

The city put her in a credit counseling program and she went to work. In the spring, she began looking for a house. She settled on a simple yellow two-story in New Auburn. The house has a small back yard and six bedrooms, two bathrooms and a laundry room.

“It’s not much to look at, not now at least,” Mortimer said. “I had friends take one look and tell me to move on. But I guess you would have had to go through what I went through to really see how beautiful it is. Or, how beautiful it’s going to be.”

Guardian angels

According to Gail Phoenix, Auburn’s community development coordinator, the city and Mortimer bought the house for $52,500. Mortimer will lease it from the city for two years, then take over the loans. She will pay about $520 per month on her mortgages, plus her utilities. That’s about $100 more than she now pays in rent.

In all, Mortimer has taken out 10 mortgages on the property, including five loans for renovations worth $60,000.

Repairs have been extensive, she said. Since she closed on the house this summer, contractors have put on a new roof, replaced plumbing, electrical lines, shored up masonry and repaired the back porch.

“I had to manage that, too,” she said. “I had to work with the real estate agents. I had to deal with housing insurance. I had to find the contractors and hire them and keep on them to make sure they got the work done.”

But every time she feels overwhelmed, the city guides her on her way.

“They’ve been like guardian angels,” Mortimer said. “They don’t treat you like you’re stupid or poor. And as long as you are willing to do the footwork, they’re right behind you. But you really do have to want to do it. They don’t hand it to you so much as show you how to do it.”

There’s still work to do, she said. She’s still learning how to keep a budget and make sure she sets aside enough money to pay for heating oil this winter. There’s still work to do on the house, projects she won’t get to before she takes over.

“And if something breaks, I’m the one responsible,” she said. “I have to plan for that, because I don’t have a landlord to fall back on. But now, I know I can do it. A year ago, I didn’t even know that.”