California Policy Lab October 2021 Newsletter

Simplifying financial aid letters pays big dividends

New research by the California Policy Lab and the People Lab at UC Berkeley shows that making simple changes to Cal Grant financial aid award letters significantly increased the number of California high school students who registered for an online account, a key first step for receiving the grant. Policy Brief

Evaluation of public contacts by California Highway Patrol

CPL analyzed data on two million enforcement stops and 886,000 non-enforcement stops made by the California Highway Patrol in 2019. This report analyzes the role that race or ethnicity may have played in who was stopped by CHP officers, using two approaches to measure racially disparate policing: benchmarking and a hit rate analysis. Report

The gig economy in California

A new working paper uses de-identified tax data to provide insights on the gig economy. The authors estimate that 14.4% of California workers (aged 18-64) had some independent contracting income in tax year 2016. Over half of independent contractors also had traditional jobs. Workers with low earnings are significantly more likely to earn independent contracting income and to rely primarily or exclusively on that income. The paper is a collaboration with the Center for Labor Research and Education. Working Paper

Inequity in the Permanent Supportive Housing system in LA

A new report finds that Black Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) residents in LA are 39% more likely to return to homelessness than White PSH residents. To explore potential reasons behind this inequity, the research team interviewed and conducted focus groups with Black PSH residents, PSH program managers, and PSH case managers who shared how racial inequality impacts the experiences of Black PSH residents.

Dr. Norweeta Milburn and Janey Rountree, two of the co-authors of the report, will present their findings on a webinar on Nov 9th at 2pm.

Report

Graduate Fellowship deadline: November 30th

CPL Graduate Fellowships support UC graduate students who are studying policy-relevant research using California administrative data or other California datasets. Application and FAQs

Webinar: Inequity in the PSH System in Los Angeles (November 9th)

Join Dr. Norweeta Milburn and Janey Rountree, two of the co-authors of CPL’s recent report on inequity in Permanent Supportive Housing in Los Angeles. The webinar is sponsored by the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing.  2pm on Nov 9th: Registration 

Millions of dollars available for Fresno-area families in Child Tax Credit. How to sign up

CPL’s research identifying which families are most at-risk of missing out on the Child Tax Credit, and finding that $101 million in credits could go unclaimed in Fresno County, is cited. 

San Diego Foundation Receives $250,000 in Grants for Child Tax Credit Outreach

CPL’s research identifying finding that $140 million in credits could go unclaimed in San Diego County is cited.