Residents of shelters for battered women and children may file an application and are certified using program requirements applicable to any other household.  To be eligible for special eligibility rules in this Section, the shelter for battered women and children must provide a majority of the residents' meals.  • 1  Residents of shelters providing meals voluntarily apply on their own behalf.  They may name a shelter member or other person to act as an authorized representative for application and certification purposes; however, the residents are expected to control the use of their own allotment.

• (1) Verification for shelter status.  Human services center (HSC) staff are responsible for verifying that the shelter for battered women and children meets the definition specified in OAC 340:50-5-7(b).
  • (A) Verification of non-profit status is accomplished by seeing correspondence from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) stipulating that the organization is tax-exempt as a charitable or educational entity under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code.
  • (B) If IRS documentation is not available, the worker sends a copy of the shelter's by-laws to the Family Support Services Division Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Section.
  • (C) SNAP Section staff notify the worker of the determination of non-profit status.
  • (D) HSC staff are responsible for keeping a list of shelters for battered women and children in their county whose status has been verified and must also keep documentation of that verification.
• (2) Separate households.  Shelter residents who are included in another active household may participate as a separate household if the active household which includes them is the household containing the person who subjected them to abuse. They may receive an additional allotment as a separate household only once a month.  The worker takes prompt action to remove shelter residents from the active household's composition and allotment.
• (3) Income and expenses.  The worker certifies residents applying as a separate household solely on the basis of their own income and the expenses for which they are responsible.  Income and the expenses of their former household are disregarded.  Room payments to the shelter are considered as shelter expense.