BELFAST, Maine — Belfast officials are wrangling with the state after the Maine Department of Health and Human Services cracked down on the city’s administration of welfare benefits.
City Manager Joe Slocum said he’s working closely with DHHS to fix the problems, but that some of the requirements state officials have asked Belfast to meet aren’t realistic.
“We are continuing to talk with the state about how this matter might be settled more amicably for all,” Slocum told the council last week. “We have always proceeded with the state in good faith and in the end we all want improvement wherever we can find the opportunity for it.”
The dispute sparked early this year, when a DHHS auditor visited the city and reviewed 11 General Assistance files. In March, the agency reported its findings, listing problems that ranged from incomplete paperwork to awarding General Assistance to people who shouldn’t have qualified or covering expenses that shouldn’t have been covered. In other instances, the city provided phone card vouchers and counted children among the residents of a household even if they only visited on weekends.
DHHS directed the city to come up with a plan for fixing the issues, which the city submitted in May and the state accepted.
But the state took another look in July after Belfast officials projected a dramatic increase in General Assistance spending in its latest budget — a jump from $33,000 to $190,000. DHHS spokeswoman Samantha Edwards said in an email Tuesday that those increases prompted the agency to audit 14 more applications this past summer when the agency found more compliance issues.
Again, the city had to propose a remediation plan, but this time it was rejected. A month later, in September, the state told the city its General Assistance reimbursements were being withheld.
General Assistance is a program that helps eligible people who do not have enough money for basic needs, including such essentials as food, heating fuel and rent or mortgage. Maine municipalities administer the program for their residents, and the state reimburses the municipalities for a percentage of those costs while overseeing that rules and regulations are followed.
DHHS also demanded that Belfast officials review every General Assistance request going back to August 2015 — more than 550 applications in all — a task Slocum said was “frankly impossible” in the 30-day timeframe DHHS requested. That deadline has passed, but talks between the city and state continue.
“This was a shock because, to the best of my knowledge, any time the state found any municipal GA program out of compliance in the past they were always more interested in improving the quality of the program going forward with no potential ramification backward,” Slocum said in a letter to councilors.
City officials say the increase in the city’s General Assistance costs came in large part due to a dramatic, threefold increase in welfare applications.
The shuttering of the Bucksport paper mill and Belfast’s Little River Apparel sent more people looking for help. In some instances, people came to Belfast from other communities in search of help, often after their general assistance requests were rejected in other places. Other applicants have struggled with chronic homelessness or mental health issues.
In the past year, the City Council adopted General Assistance policies that improved people’s chances of having their applications approved by stating that “wherever discretion existed in the program, it was to lean toward the applicant,” Slocum said. City leadership said they wanted to do whatever possible to help people avoid homelessness, within the state’s rules.
Earlier this month, the City of Portland and DHHS reached a settlement in the city’s lawsuit over the agency withholding about $1.6 million in General Assistance reimbursement. Edwards said that now that Portland has settled its dispute, Belfast is the only municipality in the state that is “under corrective action” for its General Assistance administration.
Belfast officials are consulting with an experienced General Assistance consultant, who will help the city audit more of its files, and clear up issues and gaps in the paperwork as needed. If the state requires Belfast to launch a full review of all 550 files, the city may need to hire more part-time staff to catch up and meet the state’s demands.
The city also has filed an appeal of the DHHS findings, which it calls “unduly burdensome.” That appeal is pending.
Belfast could consider taking the matter to court if that appeal isn’t granted or another agreement with DHHS isn’t worked out sooner.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.