For an up-close look at who is apply for general assistance, we paid a visit to the Portland office. A city spokesperson say the program is so busy that every weekday, a line starts forming outside before doors open at 8 a.m. And on days the line is particularly deep and snakes through the congested parking lot, staff say they have to cap the number of people they can see at 50.

Even in the afternoon, the office continues to see heavy foot traffic, as people from all walks of life come to seek help. People like carpenter Kevin Hennessey. "I recently lost my job," he says. "It wasn't like I got fired or quit, or anything like that. There was just no work."

Hennessy says he turned to general assistance because he needed short-term help as he tried to find a new job in a different, more stable field. "So they were able to help me out with my rent for the month, which was $600. They give you a voucher and you bring it over and you give it to the property manager or whoever you're dealing with, and they pay for it, which was great, otherwise I'd be sleeping in the shelter."

Pacing in a corner of the parking lot is a 25-year-old man with glasses and close-shorn hair. He introduces himself as Chad botting from Presque Isle. Botting came to Portland to work on computer systems for a corporation but got fired after a month, which he says complicated his first attempt to get general assistance. He is hoping his second try will work. He has nowhere to live. "Actually, I've been staying in my car over there -- the gray Civic," he says.

It has a heater to warm him when the night temperatures drop below freezing. But he can't afford to let it run constantly.
"I wake up when I get cold," he says.

There have been a few nights where even Botting can't stand it, and he's sought refuge in the homeless shelter. But he wants a roof of his own, and could use the help for rent. "It doesn't take much to live, as long as if you have rent, as long as you have heat and you have running water, and I have food stamps. So, I'll be alive, I'm not worried about that. It's just the nation where we live. Not every nation would be as concerned about its citizens as much as ours, so I guess we're just lucky."

Diana Sudi is a mother of two trying to find work. She already receives general assistance. It takes care of the balance of her rent not provided through another program, called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. "They give me $41 because my rent is $626."

Forty-one dollars may not seem like a large amount, considering how much it costs to raise a family, but Sudi says that every little bit helps. "You can see inside a lot of people, because we don't have anywhere to go. Actually, in Portland, that's why we all come here."

To quality for general assistance, everybody is evaluated on an application. You have to spend down all your assets, including retirement accounts, savings and life insurance policies.