The department shall implement a program of emergency assistance to needy persons in cases of fire, flood, natural disaster, homelessness or impending homelessness, or energy crisis. The department shall establish the maximum amounts of aid to be granted. The department need not establish the maximum amounts by rule under ch. 227. The department shall publish the maximum amounts in the Wisconsin administrative register if the department does not establish the maximum amounts by rule. Emergency assistance provided to needy persons under this section may only be provided to a needy person once in a 12-month period. Emergency assistance provided to needy persons under this section in cases of homelessness or impending homelessness may be used only to obtain or retain a permanent living accommodation. For the purposes of this section, a family is considered to be homeless, or to be facing impending homelessness, if any of the following applies:
(a)#
The family must leave its current housing because it is uninhabitable as determined by a local building inspector, a local health department or another appropriate local authority.
(am)#
The family is experiencing a financial crisis that makes it very difficult for the family to make a rent payment, mortgage payment or property tax payment and the family has been notified that it will be required to leave its current housing if it does not make that payment immediately.
(b)#
The family has a current residence that is a shelter designed for temporary accommodation such as a motel, hotel, shelter facility or transitional shelter facility.
(c)#
A member of the family was a victim of domestic abuse, as defined in s. 968.075 (1) (a).
(d)#
The family is without a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.
(e)#
The family is living in a place that is not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation.