HB 1586-FN – AS INTRODUCED
2008 SESSION
05/09
HOUSE BILL 1586-FN
AN ACT relative to housing assistance for recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).
SPONSORS: Rep. Donovan, Sull 4; Rep. Schulze, Hills 26; Rep. Skinder, Sull 1; Rep. Jillette, Sull 2; Rep. MacKay, Merr 11; Sen. Fuller Clark, Dist 24
COMMITTEE: Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs
This bill establishes a monthly $250 supplemental rent voucher for the neediest families who are receiving TANF.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
08-2589
05/09
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Eight
AN ACT relative to housing assistance for recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Amount of Assistance; TANF; Housing Subsidy. Amend RSA 167:7, II-V to read as follows:
II. The commissioner of health and human services shall establish for the [aid to families with dependent children] Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program consolidated standards of need, or consolidated standards of need except for shelter, which may be separate from the payment standards and which shall be annually revised to accurately reflect the current cost of the basic necessities of living compatible with decency and health as determined by reliable market data. The commissioner may further establish consolidated standards of payment, or consolidated standards of payment except for shelter, subject to appropriated funds and applicable federal regulations.
III. The commissioner of the department of health and human services shall determine the level of benefits in [both] assistance programs so that recipients shall be allowed to subsist compatibly with decency and health, subject to the amount of appropriated funds and applicable federal regulations.
III-a. The department shall identify the neediest families who are receiving TANF and shall issue such families a monthly $250 supplemental rent voucher. The voucher shall be issued directly to the parent or caretaker relative of the TANF assistance group and shall be made payable to their landlord. The department shall ensure that, whenever possible, receipt of the voucher shall not affect the assistance group’s eligibility for any other supplemental benefit program. The department shall establish rules, pursuant to RSA 541-A, relative to program eligibility and the definition of need for purposes of the supplemental rent voucher.
IV. In determination of the amount of payments or other assistance under RSA 167 or RSA 161, due regard shall be given to the income and resources of applicants.
V. Subject to applicable federal regulations, the commissioner may establish criteria to operate a special needs program, or to operate an emergency assistance program [only for aid to families with dependent children], subject to the amount of available funds in the budget of the department of health and human services.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.
LBAO
08-2589
12/14/07
HB 1586-FN - FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT relative to housing assistance for recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Department of Health and Human Services states this bill would increase state restricted expenditures, and may decrease county and local expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2008 and each year thereafter. This bill would have no fiscal impact on state, county, and local revenue.
METHODOLOGY:
The Department states this bill would establish a monthly $250 supplemental rent voucher for the neediest families who are receiving TANF. The bill specifies the rent voucher would be available to families receiving TANF, therefore those groups that are provided solely state funded financial assistance in the future would be ineligible for the voucher. These groups include Unemployed Parent program families; child-only cash assistance households with a payee relative that is not included in the household; cash assistance households that have an excluded Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiary or an Old Age Assistance (OAA), Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled (APTD), or Aid to the Needy Blind (ANB) cash assistance recipients; and families of a planned state funded program called the Interim Disabled Parent program, for families in which an adult is temporarily unable to participate with work requirements due to an illness or injury. The Department states the voucher would be provided to those TANF families who have rental costs and do not receive assistance under any housing assistance program. TANF families paying a mortgage would not be eligible for the voucher. The Department states in the month of October 2007, there were 4,947 TANF cases in New Hampshire, of which approximately 1,192 could be eligible for the proposed voucher. The Department states the total cost of the rent voucher is indeterminable without definitive eligibility conditions to identify the number of households that would be found eligible. The Department states this cost could total approximately $3,576,000 if all eligible households received the $250 subsidy (1,192 eligible X $250 monthly subsidy X 12 months). The Department states there would be indeterminable one-time costs associated with policy and forms revision, and staff training to introduce the new cash assistance benefit and manage the eligibility determination process for this benefit. There would also be a one-time cost of approximately $288,000 associated with programming the New HEIGHTS computer system to support the automated payment of the shelter subsidy to eligible families each month. The Department states local welfare costs may be reduced as a result of lowered need for rent assistance provided by local welfare administrations to TANF recipients, as well as a potential reduced demand on homeless shelters, as fewer families would be evicted for failure to meet rent obligations. The Department is unable to determine the exact fiscal impact at this time.