It just got harder for low-income families to find affordable rents.

Local housing authorities reduced the value of Section 8 vouchers Friday in response to new guidelines and less money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

For most new recipients, people up for renewal and those who move, it means finding cheaper places to live or paying more out of pocket.

“It gives everyone less choices and less room to maneuver,” said James Dowling, executive director at the Lewiston Housing Authority.

LHA oversees 1,133 vouchers. It has frozen the rental maximum for one-bedroom apartments at $467 and reduced the rest: two-bedrooms dropped $4 to $596, three-bedrooms dropped $37 to $714, and four-bedrooms dropped $90 to $763.

Rates across the river moved similarly.

Executive Director Richard Whiting at the Auburn Housing Authority said he made another “very unpopular” policy change. To stretch AHA’s funds, families now have to double up: two people per bedroom. Even teenagers of the opposite sex.

“We don’t feel that it’s right or it’s desirable, but the federal government is forcing housing authorities to make some fairly nasty choices,” he said.

To cut program costs, Dowling also reinstated income checks in Lewiston last month. Families had been required to update earnings information once a year. Now, he said, families must report income increases as it happens. When a family earns more money, it pays more rent. People that don’t report will be caught at the annual check and charged back rent.

The changes come on the heels of unpredictable and shrinking funding from HUD. The federal government used to enter 15-year contracts with housing authorities, according to Whiting. Agencies knew how much money they had available to spend.

Dowling is currently renewing LHA’s funding every three months. This summer, it made rental payments to landlords without having HUD money firmly in place. “We don’t have the cash flow to absorb that for very long,” he said.

AHA has 544 people on voucher waiting lists, families that earn so little they qualify for rental assistance.

LHA has 400 people waiting, and its list has been closed to new applications since February.

“There’s seemingly no end to the need for this assistance,” said Dowling.