Some towns are complaining that they increasingly have to assist people who are not from their communities.
Legislators are considering a plan that would change local welfare laws.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein reports the new measure would give municipalities a new way to share the burden.
One of New Hampshire's oldest laws concerns local welfare.
The statute requires all municipalities to cover a person's most immediate needs: shelter, food and heat.
The system is fairly straightforward, until someone who needs such help ends up moving.
New Hampshire Legal Assistance attorney Elliot Berry.
T.6
2:00 if I had lived in Sandown for 20 years, and my home got foreclosed on, and there's no rental housing in Sandown, so I go to Derry, not withstanding my 20 years of residence in Sandown, the legal liability when I show up in Derry, is Derry. And that is a huge problem.
The new legislation would allow a town to bill a person's so-called original town for the first 90 days worth of aid.
Right now, there is an unwritten code that local welfare administrators will work together to resolve any dispute over financial responsibility.
But in some places that informal system isn't working.
The city of Berlin is pushing for the bill.
In testimony provided to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee Berlin Mayor Bob Danderson said welfare costs have increased over the past five years.
And, he went on, a little more than half the people who received that assistance have lived in Berlin less than a year.
Danderson doesn't want to see Berlin become what he called a Mecca of poverty.
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2:10 what I fear is Berlin becomes a community of last resort...they come without any prospect for a job and end up on assistance. I think that would be an evil cycle. b/c Berlin doesn't have the ability to weather more poverty.
While many of the senators seemed at least sympathetic to the local welfare dilemma, questions about the measure remain.
One Committee member suggested that it would be fair for towns to recoup the first 45 days of assistance, but maybe not the full 90 days in the bill.
The Municipal Association's Judy Silva said another problem is it can be difficult to determine residency.
5:40 somebody may have crashed in somebody's spare bedroom and then moved on to local welfare office. And is that enough of a connection to the previous community that that community should be responsible for 90 days of support in that next town?
Silva joked that New Hampshire could consider a plan similar to Maine, where the state picks up half the tab for local welfare costs.
She added that she didn't anticipate that would be seriously considered anytime soon.
The Senate HHS Committee is expected to consider this bill soon, probably in the next two weeks.
For NHPR News, I'm DG.
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