Relates to eliminating rent for homeless shelters; provides that a homeless individual or family applying for or receiving temporary housing assistance shall not be required to pay to any local or state government or agency or any provider, room and board or contribute any earned or unearned income, available benefits or resources to eliminate their need for temporary housing assistance or as a condition to receive temporary housing assistance from such provider.
Relates to additional state payment assistance; provides that where there is no agreement in effect for federal administration of additional state payments the commissioner of the office of temporary and disability assistance is responsible for providing assistance to applicants for or recipients of such payments as it relates to applying for, modifying or maintaining such benefits.
Directs social services districts to contract with non-residential programs for victims of domestic violence to provide outreach and education to students in public and private high schools; provides for state reimbursement therefor.
Directs the social services district to take no action to establish paternity or a child support order when the applicant or recipient for aid to dependent children has established good cause to refuse to cooperate.
Permits appeals to the department of family assistance to be conducted by means of a conference telephone, video conference or similar communications systems with and by independent hearing officers.
Relates to requiring participation in education programs leading to a high school diploma or high school equivalency diploma for those seeking public assistance.
Requires social services districts to, every heating season, automatically re-enroll persons or households currently receiving assistance through the low-income home energy assistance program, so long as each person or household maintains eligibility.
Requires the department of social services to apply for a waiver or request authorization to create a list of healthy and nutritious foods and beverages that may be purchased with supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) benefits.
Requires the homestead exemption used in the calculation for public assistance to be the same as the homestead exemption under the civil practice law and rules.