General Assistance

General Assistance (GA) is a town-level, single-payment, voucher-based welfare program of last resort. It is intended to help Blue Hill residents meet their basic needs, including food and potable water, housing, electricity, heating fuel, medical costs, household supplies, and burial costs. Every municipality in Maine is required to have a General Assistance program; if you live in another municipality, please visit your town office for more information.

“Town-level” means that the General Assistance Administrator who runs our program is a member of the Town Office staff, and while cases may be escalated if you disagree with our decision, in most instances, decisions are made and funds are issued from within the Town Office.

“Single-payment” means that GA payments are never recurring. If your application is approved, the funds issued will be calculated to cover your needs for up to 30 days. That single payment may be split up among multiple vendors, but to receive further funding after that period, you will need to apply again, and repeat-applicant requirements will apply.

“Voucher-based” means that applicants never receive cash or checks made out to them. Instead, the Town writes checks to the vendors servicing you, like your landlord or power company. In rare cases, to pay for food, household supplies, or prescriptions, the Town may issue a voucher to the applicant to be used lieu of cash at a store. However, it is the applicant’s responsibility to find a store willing to accept a GA voucher before that voucher can be issued.

“Welfare program of last resort” means that applicants are expected to fully avail themselves of all other resources before turning to GA. First-time applicants’ cases are assessed purely on the basis of need; however, if you have ever applied for GA before, you will be required to provide extra documentation proving that you have used all possible means to reduce your need for GA since your first case. For more information on that documentation, please see “How do I apply for General Assistance?” > “Additional requirements for repeat applicants.”

Your application will be kept confidential except as required to verify information. By signing the application, you give express permission for us to contact any of the people or groups listed on the last page of the application for information. We will not tell them any more than is required to find out what we need. If there are multiple GA Administrators in the office, we may look over your application together to ensure accuracy and fairness; however, we will not discuss your case with anyone, including other staff members, who are not under oath as GA Administrators. If you are approved for funding, the Treasurer will see your name and the amount of money disbursed but will not know any of the details of your case. Finally, if you move municipalities and apply for GA again in your new town, that GA Administrator may contact the GA Administrator of your old town for details of your case. Misuse of any information relating to an applicant or recipient is a punishable offense under 22 M.R.S §42(2).

1. Fill out the above application to the best of your ability. We suggest filling out the PDF on a computer, but you are also welcome to print it blank and fill it out on paper, come by the Town Hall to pick up a paper copy, or call in and ask us to mail you a paper copy.
2. Contact the Town Office to schedule a meeting with a GA Administrator. These meetings usually take about an hour. We would appreciate it if you could meet with us on a day when we’re open, but, if necessary, we can come in to meet you on a day when we are closed. If you have an emergency outside of our office hours and need to meet with us immediately, call the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office at (207) 667-7575 and they will call us at home.
   • Meetings are not required by state statute; we have simply found that they greatly reduce the rate of unnecessary denials. If you cannot make it to the Town Hall for a meeting, you may still apply for GA by mail, but please be sure to fill your application out carefully and thoroughly, sign it, and provide as much documentation as possible, as we will not be able to correct any mistakes with you.
3. Bring your completed application to your meeting. If you filled it out on a computer, you may email it to the GA Administrator with whom you will be meeting, and we will print it for you. If you filled it out on paper, please make sure you (and any co-applicants) have signed the last page. If there are parts you could not fill out, that’s okay; we can finish it during your meeting.
4. Also bring your bank statement(s) from the past 30 days and, if you think you might quality for emergency funds, proof of your emergency (eviction/foreclosure notice, utility shutoff notice, etc.). If you have ever applied for GA anywhere in Maine, even if your application was denied, it was a long time ago, or it was in a different town, see below – “Additional requirements for repeat applicants.”
5. At your meeting, your GA Administrator will sign your application; this starts a 24-hour window, by the end of which we must furnish you with a written decision. In most cases, you will leave the meeting with a written decision.
6. During the meeting, your GA Administrator will go over the details of your circumstances and the numbers on the application. Section 4 of the application will ask you to list the amounts and purposes of money requested, but it is possible to be approved for a smaller amount of money. At the end of the meeting, your application will be in one of these states:
   • If your application is approved, you will receive a Notice of Eligibility form listing the amount(s) of funding and requirements for future eligibility. We will send the check(s) out within 24 hours. Be sure to read through the Notice of Eligibility thoroughly and keep it for future reference. If you ever apply for GA again, even in another town in several years, you will be held to those requirements.
   • If you are not eligible for standard GA but can prove an emergency, like impending homelessness or lack of heating fuel in winter, we may be able to provide a specific amount additional funding, but only if that additional amount would cure the emergency. We will need to contact your vendor to get confirmation of whether they would continue to service you for the additional amount. If so, we will give you a Notice of Eligibility for the emergency amount. If not, we will give you a Notice of Ineligibility.
   • If you did not provide us with enough information to make a determination, we can give you the rest of the 24-hour window to provide that information by email and potentially mail you a Notice of Eligibility. We are required to close the case after 24 hours, so if we have not heard back from you by then, we will mail you a Notice of Ineligibility. However, we can reopen the case anytime within the next 30 days if you come back with the required documents.
   • If your application is denied, you will receive a Notice of Ineligibility. If you ever apply for GA again, you will still be considered a repeat applicant and required to provide extra documentation (see below), but there will be no extra requirements for future eligibility. In rare cases, such as if you lied on your application or quit your last job without just cause, you may be disqualified from applying for GA for up to 120 days. Such disqualifications will also suspend other state welfare you receive, like SNAP benefits.
7. If you disagree with the decision that was made, please feel free to discuss it with your GA Administrator. You have the right to request a Fair Hearing, which will be conducted by someone who was not involved in your initial case. Fair Hearings must be requested in writing within five days of receipt of your Notice of Eligibility or Ineligibility and you have the right to be represented by an attorney (at your expense). If you think that your rights were violated during your case, you may also contact the State Department of Health and Human Services at +1 (800) 442-6003.
8. If you ever apply for GA again, regardless of whether you were eligible or ineligible to receive funding, you will be considered a repeat applicant (see below). It is very important that you keep your receipts going forward.

We understand that some General Assistance application requirements can be rather onerous, so we have compiled a (non-exhaustive) list of other resources in our area. This list should not be taken as an endorsement, either by the Town or any of its employees, of any of these organizations, and if you know of any additional resources (or that any of these are no longer in operation), please let us know. 211-Maine is a great directory for resources across the state.