Bar Harbor - Owning your own home with a white picket fence has always been part of the American Dream.

However, the recent economic downfall has shattered many of those dreams. With a Presidential election coming up in November, housing is on a lot of people's minds.

Regional Administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Barbara Fields, said "One size doesn't fit all. We are pursuing the slate of strategies that can move us forward and give every american a place to call home."

Which is the reason why four former senators, two democrats and two republicans, formed the Bipartisan Policy Center. Former Maine Senator George Mitchell led the fourth and final Public Housing Forum at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Habor.

Mitchell says rebuilding the housing market is what will help the economic situation. "Housing, construction, furnishing, all of it is a big part of our economy."

Especially in the Northeast, where there is less urban housing.

"One of the reasons we wanted to have one of our meetings in Maine is to deal with rural housing," Mitchell said.

Recent programs have started to help the housing market in the pine tree state's rural communities.

Administrator for the USDA Rural Housing Services, Tammye Trevino, said, "Whether it's through a modification program, or an existing mortgage, or a refinance of a mortgage, or showing them how to get rental assistance in a multifamily home."

The Bipartisan Policy want to continue to bring these ideas to the next Presidential administration.

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