By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

Higher rents and heating bills are driving up general assistance costs in the Twin Cities.

Lewiston distributed $369,606 in the form of rent, heating and food assistance in fiscal year 2004. It’s the highest spending for that department ever – $26,000 more than the city spent in fiscal year 2002 during the height of the city’s Somali influx.

The pattern is the same in Auburn, according to Dot Meagher, director of Auburn’s Health and Human Services Department. Costs in both cities rose in 2002, dropped sharply in 2003 and rose again last year.

And while immigrants such as Somalis, Ethiopians and Sudanese account for more general assistance than they did before 2001, those numbers have fallen since 2002.

Immigrants caused a spike in 2002 after more than 1,100 Somalis moved to Lewiston, but they have not accounted for the recent increases, Charron said.

In 2002, immigrants made up 35 percent of the total cases. That fell to 28 percent in 2003 and 2004, even though the number of immigrants is now estimated at between 1,200 and 1,500.

“We’ve been seeing more regular clients, non-immigrant clients,” said Sue Charron, Lewiston’s general assistance administrator. “These are new faces, people that we haven’t seen before.”

They tend to be single people with a history of mental-health problems or to be families facing evictions, Charron said. “And there tends to be more of the mental-health clients than evictions.”

Community groups and charities are doing a better job of contacting people and convincing them to get help, and that might account for the increase, she said.

Auburn up, too

Auburn’s GA costs also are going up because of higher rents and fuel costs, Meagher said.

“Even if you have a landlord who pays heating costs as part of the rent, that landlord’s costs went up,” she said. “That’s a domino effect. It means that overall, rents are going to go right up, as well.”

The high numbers appear to be continuing into the current fiscal year, Meagher said.

Auburn distributed $22,258 in general assistance in the first six months of the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. That’s almost as much as the city doled out in all of fiscal year 2003 and more than half of what the city distributed in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2004.

“It looks like this year is going to be right up there, as well,” Meagher said.

Maine cities can distribute a fixed amount of aid based on U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rent estimates.

For example, Lewiston and Auburn can distribute up to $395 for a single person or $490 for a two-person family. That money can be spent on rent, heating or food. The state reimburses the cities for half of what they spend.

“In reality, most of it goes to rent or heat,” Meagher said. “Most of the people who need general assistance already qualify for food stamps.”