Emergency Assistance Guidelines

Home Emergency Assistance Guidelines

Emergency Assistance:

Emergency Assistance provides financial aid for two (2) purposes: (1) to help alleviate a life-threating circumstance like eviction or utility disconnection; or (2) to help pay a work-related expense necessary to obtain or maintain employment. A life-threatening circumstance is a condition which poses an imminent peril to health and/or safety because of a lack of or the jeopardizing of the availability of shelter, food, utility service, transportation, or other necessities. You may also receive Emergency Assistance to help pay for a work-related expense, but only if payment of the expense is necessary for you to get or keep a job. To help you pay such expenses, the General Assistance Office may require you to apply with other agencies or programs in which you may be entitled, as Township assistance is a program of last resort.

The General Assistance Office requires:

  • Proof of the documented emergency: Official documentation that verifies the nature of the circumstance that is causing the need for financial assistance.
  • Proof of being on the road to self-sufficiency: This demonstrates a clear plan or active steps being taken to become financially independent and no longer reliant on assistance; alleviating the emergency.
  • Proof of established residency:  must have resided in Orland Township for the previous six (6) months and be a United States citizen or qualifying immigrant.

Assistance up to the amount of the payment level is disbursed by means of direct vendor payment. You will not receive cash. The personnel of the General Assistance Office will communicate what the payment level is for the size of your household.

You may receive Emergency Assistance even though you have applied for other monthly welfare assistance programs [such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Aid to the Aged, Blind and Disabled (AABD), Refugee and Repatriate Assistance (RRA), or Supplemental Security Income (SSI)]; only if you have not yet begun to receive monthly payments of such assistance. However, if you have already begun receiving monthly payments of other cash welfare assistance programs, you cannot receive Emergency Assistance.

⇒Emergency Assistance has a procedure for applying, and the General Assistance Office has up to 30 days to process

⇒You may receive Emergency Assistance only once in a 24-month period; with a maximum of three (3) occurrences per lifetime.