Maine § 1764. - Housing assistance programs

§ 1764.. Housing assistance programs

1.  Program inclusion.  Housing cooperatives and residents of housing cooperatives as classified or categorized in subsection 2 as owners, landlords, tenants or renters must be considered for eligibility as owners, landlords, tenants or renters for all state and municipal housing assistance programs, including publicly funded programs administered by private agencies, notwithstanding state law or agency rules to the contrary, including but not limited to:

A. Energy efficiency and weatherization assistance programs administered by the Efficiency Maine Trust Board set out in Title 35‑A, section 10103, subsection 2;   [PL 2023, c. 513, §7 (NEW).]

B. Programs administered by the Maine State Housing Authority established by Title 30‑A, section 4722, including but not limited to home fuel and electricity assistance programs, manufactured home replacement programs and programs to assist tenants with locating housing and with the rental application process and to provide supportive services to promote successful landlord-tenant relationships; and   [PL 2023, c. 513, §7 (NEW).]

C. Municipal general assistance provided pursuant to Title 22, chapter 1161.   [PL 2023, c. 513, §7 (NEW).]

2.  Classification of housing cooperatives.  Housing assistance programs may develop specific policies that govern the treatment of program applicants who belong to or reside in housing cooperatives. For those programs that do not have specific policies regarding housing cooperatives, program applicants belonging to the housing cooperative must be treated as owners with a housing classification type of homeownership, except for the following:

A. A program applicant belonging to a group equity housing cooperative must have the program applicant's housing type classified as rental property, and all residents must be categorized as a renter or tenant and the group equity housing cooperative must be categorized as the owner or landlord and carrying charges as rent; and   [PL 2023, c. 513, §7 (NEW).]

B. A program applicant who is a resident of a housing cooperative and leases the program applicant's unit from the housing cooperative but is not a member of the housing cooperative, does not own a share of stock and does not hold any other ownership interest in the housing cooperative or residential property must be categorized as a renter or tenant and the respective cooperative affordable housing corporation must be categorized as owner or landlord.   [PL 2023, c. 513, §7 (NEW).]

3.  Cooperative affordable housing corporation participation in housing assistance programs.  If a cooperative affordable housing corporation is classified as the owner, the cooperative affordable housing corporation has the right to apply for multifamily owner benefit programs in accordance with the guidelines of the housing assistance programs.