We’re proud to help families buy homes; it’s not entitlement, it’s hope.

Jonathan Labonte’s Oct. 5 column suggested that people should rethink the American Dream of homeownership, and that homeownership programs offered by the cities of Lewiston and Auburn have contributed to problems in the housing market and, therefore, to America’s financial crisis.

He proposes “hard work and economic opportunity” have been “replaced with a sense of entitlement,” and it is “frightening” that someone who earns $12 an hour is “positioned to own a home.”

We cannot let that stand without a little dose of accuracy and experience in response.

The city of Auburn has managed a homeownership program for the past eight years; it is managed by two people with more than 60 years of combined experience. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The program provides downpayment assistance (a portion of the purchase) for families whose income is below 80 percent of median in the Lewiston-Auburn area. These can be single people or single parents, as well as the two-parent household Labonte professes is emblematic of the American Dream.

Program requirements include the borrower taking a 10-hour home buyer education class and pays no more than 25 percent of their income on housing costs (mortgage, taxes, insurance). We also work with the borrower to make a budget, ensure there is positive cash flow for their participation, and have thier loan evaluated by a citizen committee.

We also meet with the borrower before the sale and continue to meet with them to discuss their budget and credit. We do not allow homebuyers to accept inflated or predatory lending for their primary loan and ensure their building be improved to a “housing quality standard” if necessary.

Those are significant safeguards.

Our experience has been that borrowers do not feel entitled to home ownership – rather, they feel hope. We know them to be hard-working, and know they can become homeowners (often of a multi-family property, as many of us started our home ownership experience) and live within their means.

As we assist these families to become homeowners, they assist the city. They create more owner occupancies of multi-family properties in our downtown and make personal investment in their neighborhood. They improve the properties to be purchased, revitalize abandoned or foreclosed properties and become involved in their community.

We saw the housing “crisis” developed by mortgage lenders who allowed borrowers to pay up to 45 percent or more of their income for their housing costs.

We saw families who were rejected by MaineHousing (at a mortgage interest rate of five percent) who then went to another lender who convinced them they could pay nine percent.

And lastly, we saw costs of living and housing prices inflate so rapidly that some families needed more than the “hard work and economic opportunity” of their parents’ era.

That, of course, is not the complete reason for the housing market dilemma, but we believe it is a major part, and where accurate credit and/or blame is due, rather than the small and stringently regulated municipal homeownership programs of the Twin Cities.

The city of Auburn is proud to be able to assist families to become residents of Auburn, to help young persons stay in Maine and buy a home near their family, to work with single parents or the larger mature family who want their children settled in their own home and continuing in Auburn schools.

Our experience has taught us to respect those families who give their all to be Auburn homeowners, and who have made a positive difference in their community and neighborhoods.

Gail Phoenix is community development coordinator and Reine Mynahan is community development administrator for the city of Auburn.