Will California cut services for welfare recipients?

Inequality Insights

A weekly dose of informed analysis, commentary and news items on the persistent issues of poverty and inequality in California

By Felicia Mello

January 12, 2024

Illustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters; iStock

Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m CalMatters reporter Felicia Mello.

Advocates for low-income Californians said they're concerned about roughly $295 million in proposed cuts to services for welfare recipients in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2024-25 budget proposal, even as they expressed relief that the governor had avoided bigger clawbacks to social services.

Newsom’s proposal would maintain state tax credits for poor families, while expanding Medi-Cal to cover all undocumented immigrants and increasing the minimum payouts in CalFresh benefits, anti-poverty organizations noted.

But the proposal would trim programs that help welfare recipients find jobs, assist them with urgent housing or mental health needs, and subsidize the employers who hire them.

Did someone forward this email to you? Inequality Insights is a free weekly must-read newsletter helping Californians stay in-the-know on inequality issues. Sign up →

“It’s going to be hugely impactful for the people that we’re serving,” said Eileen Cubanski, acting executive director for the County Welfare Directors Association of California. “When we’re talking about our poorest families in moments of crisis, where you can throw some services and supports at them to actually help stabilize them, that’s a big loss for us.”

In total, Newsom wants to withdraw $13 billion from the state’s reserves and to trim spending on climate and housing as he seeks to close what his office estimates is a $38 billion shortfall after tax receipts came in late and lower than expected in 2023.

Programs that help foster youth are also on the chopping block, including housing assistance and a hotline for foster care families in crisis.

Those proposed cuts, disproportionately affecting youth of color, come as lawmakers are weighing reparations for Black Californians, noted Brandon Greene, policy director for the Western Center on Law and Poverty.

“When we’re talking about things like racialized inequity, and how that begins with children and proceeds through early adulthood, things like these transitional programs being targeted for foster youth take on more importance,” he said.

The governor will submit an updated budget in May based on new revenue estimates, before lawmakers pass the final version by June 15.

DON'T MISS

Some stories may require a subscription to read.

Forced “outing.” California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office warned school districts that they can’t legally force school staff to disclose a student’s gender identity or gender nonconformity to a parent or guardian without that student’s consent. That would violate students’ constitutional rights to equal protection and privacy and their statutory protections from discrimination under California law, exposing students to “different, adverse treatment,” he said.
Banking on the underserved. The banking industry is arguing against new federal rules that would make them keep more money in capital reserves, saying that would reduce their ability to lend to minority-owned businesses. An opinion piece in Fortune calls them out for fighting other bills that would require banks to reveal how much they lend to minority-owned businesses. A 2022 Stanford survey found Latino-owned companies had lower approval rates than white-owned businesses for loans of more than $50,000, and in October Goldman Sachs reported that 26% of Black business loan applicants got loans, compared to 51% of white small business applicants.

Jacqueline Patton, senior staff attorney at the Eviction Defense Collaborative, explains to Corey Lafayette the tentative settlement of his eviction case at the San Francisco Superior Court on Nov. 20, 2023. Photo by Manuel Orbegozo for CalMatters

Eviction defense. As evictions soar, advocates say a lawyer can be the difference between a tenant keeping their home or being put out on the street. CalMatters found that whether tenants can get a lawyer can depend on where they live. San Francisco guarantees tenants access to an attorney in eviction cases, but across the bay in Contra Costa County, it’s a different story.
Rent gouging. Invitation Homes, the nation’s largest home owner — with 85,000 single-family homes including 12,000 in California — will pay $3.7 million to resolve allegations it raised rents beyond state limits, including the 10% annual cap during the pandemic emergency. Some $1.68 million will be refunded or credited to tenants.

Population prop. The sharp rise in immigration has propped up U.S. population growth the last two years; 376,000 immigrants entered two years ago, compared to 1.14 million last year. California’s population fell by 75,000 people from July 2022 to July 2023, but it would have fallen by more than 225,000 if not for international migration, the L.A. Times reports.
Latina leaders. Latinas constitute 20% of California’s population, but hold about 11% of elected offices on the state, federal, city, county and school board levels, says Hispanas Organized for Political Equity (HOPE), an advocacy group for Latina leadership. Its newest report notes that of the 480 appointments Gov. Newsom made last year between Jan. 1 and Dec. 15, 30% went to white men and 22% to white women, while 9% went to Latinas and 8.5% to Latinos.
Reparations retrench. Budgets are tight, making the future murky for reparations to Black Californians murky. Gov. Newsom didn’t mention reparations funding in his budget proposal this week, and San Francisco Mayor London Breed recently slashed all $4 million in funding for that city’s proposed Office of Reparations, which would have been the first in the nation.

Thanks for following our work on the California Divide team. While you’re here, please tell us what kinds of stories you'd love to read.

Email inequalityinsights@calmatters.org or just hit reply to this email.

Thanks for reading, and you’ll hear from us again next week,
The California Divide Team

California Divide is a statewide media collaboration to raise awareness and engagement about poverty and income inequality through in-depth, local storytelling and community outreach. The project is based at CalMatters in Sacramento with a team of reporters deployed at news organizations throughout California.

DON'T MISS

Advertisement