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256.871 Emergency assistance to needy families with children under age 21.

Subdivision 1. County welfare agency; duties. The county welfare agency shall grant emergency financial assistance and services to any needy family with a child under the age of 21 years who is or was within six months prior to application living with an eligible relative specified in section 256.12, subdivision 14.

Subd. 2. Eligibility for emergency assistance. Notwithstanding any other eligibility provision of this chapter, any child without resources immediately available to meet emergency needs shall be furnished assistance for a period not in excess of 30 days during any 12-month period. Assistance shall be furnished under the following conditions:

(a) The child is without resources immediately available to meet emergency needs.

(b) Assistance is necessary to avoid destitution or provide emergency shelter arrangements.

(c) The child's destitution or need for living arrangements did not arise because the child or the relative refused without good cause to accept employment or training for employment.

(d) Assistance shall be in the form of money payments, vendor payments, payments in kind or interest free loans for tools, equipment or expenses required for return to employment. Such loans shall not exceed $100 and shall be considered only when other private or public resources are not immediately available.

Subd. 3. County of responsibility. No state or county durational residence is required to qualify for such assistance. The county which shall be financially responsible and grant assistance shall be the county wherein the child lives who is found to be in emergency need.

Subd. 4. Emergency defined. An emergency is a situation or set of circumstances which endangers or threatens to endanger the health or safety of a child or the child's relative caretaker. Examples of emergencies which create the need for such assistance include natural disasters such as floods, fires, or storms; civil disorders; strikes; illness; accident; death; eviction from shelter; migrant families in necessitous circumstances; or other crises, as defined by the commissioner, in accordance with directives of the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. The commissioner shall limit, entirely or in part, emergency assistance payments for utilities and housing when eligible families do not demonstrate that they have made a good faith effort to meet those payments.

Subd. 5. Authorization to grant emergency assistance. The local social services agency shall designate a person or persons who shall be authorized to immediately grant emergency assistance pursuant to this section.

Subd. 6. Reports of estimated expenditures; payments. The county agency shall submit to the state agency reports required under section 256.01, subdivision 2, paragraph (17). Fiscal reports shall estimate expenditures for each succeeding month in such form as required by the state agency. The state share of the nonfederal portion of eligible expenditures shall be 100 percent. Adjustment of any overestimate or underestimate made by any county shall be paid upon the direction of the state agency in any succeeding month.

Subd. 7. Authority of the commissioner. The commissioner is hereby authorized, subject to the provisions of chapter 14, to promulgate rules not inconsistent with this section as necessary to qualify for maximum federal funds to implement sections 256.72 to 256.871.

HIST: 1971 c 943 s 1; 1983 c 216 art 1 s 38; 1984 c 580 s 1; 1984 c 640 s 32; 1985 c 252 s 17; 1Sp1985 c 9 art 2 s 33; 1986 c 444; 1988 c 719 art 8 s 8; 1989 c 89 s 8; 1989 c 277 art 2 s 6; 1Sp1989 c 1 art 16 s 4; 1990 c 568 art 4 s 84; 1991 c 292 art 5 s 24; 1994 c 631 s 31; 1996 c 305 art 2 s 46; 1997 c 203 art 11 s 4

* NOTE: This section is repealed by Laws 1997, chapter 85, *article 1, section 74, effective July 1, 1998. From January 1, *1998, to March 31, 1998, the statutory sections listed in Laws *1997, chapter 85, article 1, section 74, paragraph (a), apply *only in counties that operate an MFIP field trial and that *continue to provide project STRIDE services to members of the *MFIP comparison group, and in those counties that have not *completed conversion to MFIP-S employment and training *services. From April 1, 1998, through June 30, 1998, the *sections listed in paragraph (a) are effective only in counties *that operate an MFIP field trial and that continue to provide *project STRIDE services to members of the comparison group.

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Revisor of Statutes