The city of Berlin says it's got a local welfare problem.
Officials say they have seen their welfare budget grow every year for the past five.
And increasingly, Berlin says it's had to pick up the tab for other towns' downtrodden
New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein reports, the situation has gotten to the point where the city is calling for a change in state law.
Listen to Berlin city officials, and you'll hear about a great migration to The City that Trees Built.
Not that Berlin minds the company.
In the words of their mayor, 'Berlin will welcome anyone. We just hope and pray they have a job.'
This particular prayer of the mayor's however, isn't always answered.
According to the city's welfare office, about 53% of the people who received direct assistance had lived in town for less than a year.
New Hampshire Legal Assistance attorney Robert Brazil, who works out of the Littleton office, says many people come for the housing.
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1:34 I am not so sure there are welfare directors who say directly, go to Berlin, but I think generally, what is going on is a much more subtle encouragement to go live in a place where rents are more affordable, and the north country has more affordable rents right now.
Housing may be what draws people to Berlin, but some of the cities newest residents are there only because of what they left behind.
Attorney Brazil says he's seen towns bare their municipal teeth at people who have looked for help more than once.
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:05 ...there are towns where we know are bad actors. Where people are coming in repeatedly complaining about the treatment they have gotten from the welfare office, the lack of information, or refusal to give information...they will just mistreat, or make it very difficult for that person to feel they have a right, which they do have, to seek assistance.
State law says in essence if you are unable to support yourself, your town is obligated to offer some form of assistance.
The idea behind local welfare, as opposed to assistance from the state, is to help people facing the most immediate of needs.
The woman who just left her abusive husband, the father who just got diagnosed with cancer, the family that can't afford the furnace bill in February.
Some towns do all they can for their residents.
Others are less than helpful.
But New Hampshire Legal Assistance attorney Robert Brazil says sometimes people in need fin themselves in a town that just can't help.
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:36...they go to the town, looking for assistance, the town says, sure, if you can find a place to live around here, we will put down a security deposit or pay the first months rent. But all the while, the whole notion is good luck finding a place in this small town you want to remain in.
Because that home town lacks affordable housing, shelters and other social services, people leave for a place that does.
And that's how a steady stream of people winds up in Berlin.
And so Berlin-with the affordable housing and local welfare offices- ends up picking up the bill for people from other towns.
And State Senator John Gallus says the city is feeling a little used.
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1:44 ... Not that they don't want to take care of people in need. But when you have 58% of the people who aren't residents, or haven't been there for an extended period of time it seems like, it's a dumping ground...so what they are looking for is to spread that burden over a wider margin of having someone else help pick up the cost of where these people are coming from.
Gallus has introduced legislation that would allow towns in Berlin's situation to collect costs for the first 90 days of assistance from a person's town of origin.
Right now, there is only an unwritten agreement that cities and towns will work together to figure out who is financially responsible for someone.
Attorney Elliot Berry, who supports the legislation, wants to see towns have the right to seek reimbursement.
But he says, more importantly, he wants to make sure the person who shows up looking for help gets it.
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8:58 if we can do those two things, we will have made a huge step forward, not only in being fair to the towns, but more importantly to cut back on the phenomenon of desperate applicants bouncing from town to town to town in search of assistance.
And bouncing, says fellow attorney Robert Brazil is not an exaggeration.
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:00...in one case we had a family living out of their car. Town A told them you lost your Apartment in Town B, you need to get your assistance from them. Town B saying you no longer live in town B, we don't have any obligation to help you. And while this is going on, the family is sleeping in the car with their three young children. And four out of the five family members end up in the hospital with pneumonia b/c it's Feb and they are sleeping in their car.
Bills like Gallus' have been introduced in the past.
And supporters are expecting an uphill battle again this time.
The toughest hurdle for the measure may come in the House.
It's unclear whether lawmakers in local districts can be persuaded to support a plan that makes their towns liable to pay the welfare costs for people who no longer live there.
For NHPR News, I'm DG.
