California Policy Lab October 2024 Newsletter

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Records relieved for 2.5 million Californians 

CPL estimates that 70% of Californians who benefit from automatic record relief will have a “clean slate” (all records relieved), and that the majority (72%) of people who receive a clean slate will maintain it for at least 5 years. However, people are not notified, highlighting the need for a notification system or a free tool people could use to check if their record is relieved. Report

Earnings increased for food service workers because of LA’s minimum wage ordinance

CPL’s new in-depth evaluation of the ordinance shows increased earnings for food service workers while employment levels did not change. Limited service food workers (who typically don’t receive tips) experienced the highest average weekly wage increases. Report and policy brief

Welcome new CPL staff!

Carie Clinton recently joined as a financial analyst on our UCLA team. Rina Nagashima will be working with Professor Jesse Rothstein at our UC Berkeley site. We’re glad you’re on the team!

Have you watched our new video? 

Get the inside look at how we generate research insights for government impact

CPL’s NEW VIDEO

Info session: Learn how CPL supports hosted researchers

Researchers learned how CPL’s infrastructure can support their research, including CPL datasets; our Secure Data Hub; help with starting research projects, incl. technical assistance (such as IRB support) and navigating project requests with gvt. agencies; our Hashed Linkage Toolkit; and data documentation on CPL’s Data Wiki. Slides + recording

CPL staff + affiliates presenting at APPAM’s Fall Research Conference

Hear from CPLers who will present and speak on panels on new research about housing, criminal justice reform, CalFresh, and the economic recovery after the pandemic. CPL at the APPAM conference

Congress Can End the College Hunger Crisis

This OpEd by Dr. Mildred García, Chancellor of the California State University, and John B. King Jr., Chancellor of the State University of New York, explains how federal rules require college students to meet burdensome requirements to qualify for SNAP. It cites CPL’s recent report which found that only about 1 in 5 eligible UC undergraduate students enroll in CalFresh, and about 1 in 4 eligible California Community College students enroll.

LA County voters weighing Measure A ask: Where has the homeless services money gone so far?

Janey Rountree explains that people continue to experience homelessness (despite Measure H funding) because of economic factors, including insufficient income to pay high housing costs, and a very limited supply of affordable housing. She also references CPL’s research on Measure H which found that people who did not receive financial support funded by the Measure were almost four times as likely to become homeless as compared to those who did.

New Research: Impacts of California’s Clean Slate Law

A new post on the Clean Slate Initiative’s blog shares how research findings from CPL’s recent report on automatic record relief in California are helping to build the evidence base around Clean Slate policies throughout the U.S. CPL is grateful to the Clean Slate Initiative for their support of this research. The next phase will look at Clean Slate’s causal impacts on recidivism.

Please support our work
Consider donating to support our work generating research insights for government impact. If you are interested in making a larger gift, please reach out to Evan White or Janey Rountree to discuss opportunities to support CPL.