LEWISTON – MaineHousing has stepped up efforts to help people with rental housing assistance vouchers find apartments, resulting in nearly 500 more low-income households finding affordable apartments in the past few months.

The total included 38 families in Androscoggin County and 34 in Oxford County, according to Dan Simpson, a spokesman for MaineHousing.

MaineHousing Director Dale McCormick credited increased cooperation with local housing authorities, assistance with security deposits and assistance with paperwork requirements as key reasons 475 households found housing.

“Last year we analyzed the federally funded rental assistance voucher program and found that many of the vouchers we administer were not being used,” McCormick said.

MaineHousing found that the vouchers often went unused because families were unable to locate an apartment they could rent, could not come up with the security deposit, or could not find an apartment in the area where they lived. To address these issues, over the past two months of 2006 MaineHousing:

• Created eight regional teams to help voucher recipients deal with paperwork requirements and work with landlords.

• Developed and funded a security deposit program that could provide “last resort” security deposits if the household was unable to secure funds elsewhere.

• Arranged with local housing authorities to enable recipients of MaineHousing vouchers to use them in areas serviced by the local housing authorities. MaineHousing’s vouchers generally are used outside areas of local jurisdiction.

Households that receive vouchers pay 30 to 40 percent of their income for rent in privately owned apartments, with the federal subsidy paying the difference between the tenant payment and the actual rent. In 2006 the vouchers that MaineHousing administers generated about $19 million in federal rental assistance to Maine apartment owners.