(A)
Residents of Commercial Boarding Houses. Residents of
commercial boarding houses are not eligible to participate in the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program. A commercial boarding house shall be defined as
an establishment that is licensed as a commercial enterprise, and offers meals
and lodging for compensation. In cities and towns without licensing
requirements, a commercial boarding house shall be defined as a commercial
establishment that offers meals and lodging for compensation with the intent of
making a profit. The number of boarders residing in a boarding house shall not
be used to determine if a boarding house is a commercial enterprise. The
household of the owner of a boarding house may participate in SNAP as a
household separate and apart from the residents of the boarding house, if the
owner's household meets all SNAP eligibility requirements.
(B)
Residents of
Institutions. Individuals shall be considered residents of
institutions when the institution provides them with the majority of their
meals as part of normal services. A majority of meals is over 50% of three
meals daily. Residents of institutions are not eligible for participation in
SNAP, with the following five exceptions:
(1)
Residents of federally subsidized housing for the elderly built under either
Section 202 of the Housing Act of 1959 or Section 236 of the National Housing
Act. Eligible residents do not have to be elderly to receive SNAP
benefits;
(2) Residents, with or
without their children, of a drug or alcohol treatment center as defined in
106 CMR
365.610:
Drug and Alcohol Treatment
Centers;
(3) Residents of
a group living arrangement (
see
106 CMR
365.620:
Group Living
Arrangements) who are blind or disabled and receiving benefits under
Title I, Title II, Title X, Title XIV, or Title XVI of the Social Security Act
(
see
106 CMR
361.210);
(4) Residents of shelters for battered
individuals and their children as defined in
106
CMR
365.550:
Residents of Shelters
for Battered Women and Their Children; and
(5) Residents of public and private nonprofit
homeless shelters, if otherwise eligible.
(D)
Boarders Who Are Not
Residents of Commercial Boarding Houses. Boarders are defined as
individuals or groups of individuals residing with others and paying reasonable
compensation to the others for lodging and meals. In determining whether the
individual is paying reasonable compensation, only the amount paid for meals
shall be used, as long as the amount paid for meals is distinguishable from the
amount paid for lodging. Reasonable compensation for meals is one of the
following:
(1) An amount equal to or above the
maximum SNAP benefit for the appropriate boarder household size, if the boarder
is provided with more than two meals a day; or
(2) An amount that equals or exceeds b of the
maximum SNAP benefit for the appropriate boarder household size, if the boarder
is provided with only one or two meals per day.
Individuals who pay less than reasonable compensation are not
boarders and must be members of the household providing the lodging and
meals.
Boarders are ineligible to participate separately from the
household providing lodging and meals. Boarders may participate as members of
the household providing these services and at the request of the providing
household.
If the household providing lodging and meals has not requested
that its boarders be included in its household, none of the income and
resources of the boarders are to be considered available to the household
except that the payment of the boarder to the household shall be treated in
accordance with
106 CMR
365.200: Assistance Units with
Boarders Who Are Not Household Members.
(E)
Strikers.
(1)
Definition. A
striker is an individual involved in a strike or concerted stoppage of work by
employees, including a stoppage by reason of the expiration of a collective
bargaining agreement, and any concerted slowdown or other interruption of
operations by employees.
The following individuals are not considered strikers:
(a) An employee affected by a lockout. A
lockout is the closing of a workplace by an employer to resist the demands of
employees;
(b) An employee not
participating in a strike who is unable to work as a result of striking
employees;
(c) An employee who is
not part of the bargaining unit on strike and who does not want to cross a
picket line due to fear of personal injury or death; and
(d) An individual who was, on the day before
the strike, exempt from the Work Requirements described at
106 CMR
362.300:
Work Requirements,
on any basis other than employment as defined in
106 CMR
362.310(B)(10).
(2)
Eligibility. A
household with a member on strike is ineligible unless all of the following are
true:
(a) the household was participating or
was eligible to participate in SNAP on the day before the strike;
(b) the household is otherwise currently
eligible. The greater of the following two amounts shall be added to the
nonstriking members' current income to determine if the household is currently
income eligible: the striker's monthly income on the day before the strike; or
the striker's current monthly income. A household containing a striking member
shall not receive an increased allotment as the result of a decrease in the
income of the striking member.
Net income shall be determined on the basis of the household's
current circumstances in accordance with
106 CMR
364.500: Determining Net
Income; and
(c) the
striker complies with the Work Requirements described at
106 CMR
362.300:
Work Requirements,
unless exempt.
(F)
Foster Care Children and
Foster Care Adults. Foster care children and adults are those
placed in the home of relatives or non-relatives by a federal, state or local
government foster care program. A foster care household provides foster care to
these children and adults. Neither foster care children nor adults are required
to be included in the foster care household's SNAP household. If foster care
children and adults are not included in the household, the following shall
apply:
(1) no portion of the government based
foster care payments shall be counted in determining the eligibility and
benefit level of the foster care household; and
(2) foster care children and adults are
ineligible to participate as a separate SNAP household from the foster care
household.
The foster care household has the option of including the
foster care children and adults in its SNAP household; however, the foster care
payments shall then be counted as unearned income in determining the
eligibility and benefit level of the foster care household.
