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
Maine Legislature, Session 128, LD 0221
Committee: Health and Human Services
Sponsors: GRATWICK, PIERCE, DILL, DION, KATZ, ROSEN, VOLK, ZEIGLER
Amends: 22 MRSA §4307

Legislative Document
No. 221
S.P. 67
In Senate, January 24, 2017
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
Reference to the Committee on Health and Human Services suggested and ordered printed.
HEATHER J.R. PRIEST
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator GRATWICK of Penobscot.
Cosponsored by Representative PIERCE of Dresden and
Senators: DILL of Penobscot, DION of Cumberland, KATZ of Kennebec, ROSEN of 
Hancock, VOLK of Cumberland, Representative: ZEIGLER of Montville.
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.