AUBURN – The state has frozen housing aid to the poor because of cuts in federal funding.

Maine State Housing Authority got $200,000 less than it needed to cover January rents on Monday.

Maine has about 12,000 Section 8 housing vouchers. MSHA oversees one-third of them; 20 or so housing authorities across the state control the rest, according to Daniel Brennan, director of asset management.

Just before Christmas, the agency learned it would receive funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to pay for only 3,750 vouchers a month, a drop of about 200 from 2004 levels.

That new budget went into effect days later. MSHA dipped into separate funds to pay the difference. No new people will be taken into the program until the number comes down.

“Believe me, we’re well aware of the need out there,” said Brennan.

Vouchers are used by low-income families to make up the difference between the cost of rent and 30 percent of their income. HUD lowered voucher values in October to save money, setting tighter caps on what it considered fair rental price.

Mikki Swift at the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project said she could feel the effect of the freeze already.

Typically, after several calls she is able to secure housing help for clients leaving abusive situations. But she was striking out.

She anticipated full capacity at the Auburn shelter Monday night. It can accommodate 17.

“This evening, every bed will be filled,” said Swift, AWAP’s transitional services coordinator. “It’s a homeless shelter worker’s nightmare when there’s nothing available.”

People are going to stay longer because they can’t get help, she said, and others looking for shelter will be turned away.

“When women call the help line, I have to say it’s pretty grim right now, the housing situation,” she said.

The recent change is part of a new budget passed by Congress after the elections, Brennan said. MSHA has asked HUD to reconsider.

The Lewiston Housing Authority has also asked to have funding restored. Its vouchers have been cut from 1,140 to 1,080, based on a preliminary HUD budget.

“We’re hoping we can handle it by attrition,” said Executive Director James Dowling.

LHA has 413 families waiting for vouchers. That list has been closed for a year, and he doesn’t anticipate opening it to new names soon.

No one has moved off the waiting list since June.

“I think the department of HUD has been pretty adamant about wanting to cut the voucher program, and they are,” Dowling said.

Richard Whiting, executive director of the Auburn Housing Authority, said his budget looked as though it would be the same or slightly higher in 2005. It oversees 590 vouchers.

His waiting list, which is open, has fewer than 400 people, a number he said hasn’t been so low in a while.

MSHA previously froze its voucher program for nine months in 2003, also due to funding. Brennan said that he’d already heard from several concerned shelter providers.