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An Act To Amend the Laws Regarding the Municipality of Responsibility for General Assistance Applicants Released from a State Correctional Facility or County Jail Facility
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 22 MRSA §4307, sub-§4, as amended by PL 2015, c. 267, Pt. II, §1, is further amended to read:
 
4. Special circumstances.   Overseers of a municipality may not move or transport an applicant or recipient into another municipality to relieve their municipality of responsibility for that applicant's or recipient's support. The municipality of responsibility for relocations, persons released from correctional facilities and institutional settings is as follows.
 
A. When an applicant or recipient requests relocation to another municipality and the overseers of a municipality assist that person to relocate to another municipality, the municipality from which that person is moving continues to be responsible for the support of the recipient for 30 days after relocation. As used in this paragraph, "assist" includes:
 
(1) Granting financial assistance to relocate; and
 
(2) Making arrangements for a person to relocate.
 
B. If an applicant is in a group home, shelter, rehabilitation center, nursing home, hospital or other institution at the time of application and has either been in that institution for 6 months or less, or had a residence immediately prior to entering the institution which the applicant had maintained and to which the applicant intends to return, the municipality of responsibility is the municipality where the applicant was a resident immediately prior to entering the institution. For the purpose of this paragraph, a hotel, motel or similar place of temporary lodging is considered an institution when a municipality:
 
(1) Grants financial assistance for a person to move to or stay in temporary lodging;
 
(2) Makes arrangements for a person to stay in temporary lodging;
 
(3) Advises or encourages a person to stay in temporary lodging; or
 
(4) Illegally denies housing assistance and, as a result of that denial, the person stays in temporary lodging.
 
C.  If an applicant has been released from a correctional facility within 45 days of application, the municipality of responsibility for the first 12 months of payment of benefits is the municipality that was on record as the residence of the applicant when the applicant was committed to the correctional facility. A municipality of responsibility must accept an application for general assistance by telephone if the applicant is calling from another municipal office, as long as the written application is contemporaneously faxed or sent electronically to the municipality of responsibility.
 
SUMMARY
This bill repeals a provision of law providing that when a general assistance applicant applies for benefits within 45 days of being released from a correctional facility, the municipality of financial responsibility for a period of 12 months is the applicant's municipality of residence prior to incarceration.