California Policy Lab October 2025 Newsletter

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Gov’t shutdown: 330,000 college at risk of losing crucial grocery benefits

CPL research shows how many low-income students could be impacted: 276,000 California community college (CCC) students, 50,000 UC undergraduate students, and 8,400 UC graduate students. Our work shows that students usually receive around $150 a month, on average. ABC 7, Capital Public Radio, CC Daily, KTVU, Kron4, and the Modesto Bee cited CPL’s numbers. Data point

Editor’s note: As this newsletter goes to press, court cases may determine whether SNAP is funded in November with emergency funds, but if the shutdown continues, even those sources may run dry.

PBS: How Los Angeles has used AI to help those on the brink of homelessness

LA County’s Homelessness Prevention Unit (HPU) — which CPL supports and helped create —  was profiled for a PBS Brief But Spectacular segment this week. Fred Theus, HPU Case Manager, and Dana Vanderford, Associate Director, explain how the program uses CPL’s predictive model to predict — and prevent homelessness. HPU report

New interactive Prison Dashboards 

“For the first time, lawyers, policy-makers, and the general public can see detailed information about who goes to prison, for which crimes, for how long, and from which counties,” explains Michael Romano, Chairperson for the Committee on the Revision of the Penal Code. CPL’s press release includes 3 insights created from dashboard data. CA Prison Pop Dashboards

First-ever estimate of student CalWORKs participation shows 60,000 college students receive benefits

Nearly 60,000 low-income students either received CalWORKs benefits or had a household member who received benefits in Academic Year 2022-23. Students received an average of $256 per person, per month. The CA Dept. of Social Services projects that it will pay CalWORKs benefits in November. Data point.

Hosted research: Homeless shelters and mortgage prepayments

CPL not only does its own research, we also facilitate access to our data infrastructure for studies by other researchers:

1. Homeless shelters in LA County help reduce short-term mortality, crime, and ER visits for psychiatric visits: Christopher, Duggan, Martin

2. People prepay their mortgages, even when that may not make financial sense. Liebersohn, Jambulapati, & Fitzpatrick

CPL is hiring a Researcher / Senior Researcher, Health & Safety Net

This is an exciting open-rank role for a skilled safety-net or health researcher who wants to design and conduct policy-relevant quantitative research in partnership with state and local agencies throughout California. Job posting

CPL at APPAM’s Fall Research Conference

We hope to see you there! CPL staff, affiliates and research fellows will share new insights on criminal justice interventions; reducing administrative burdens; the 2023 SNAP benefits cliff; supporting college students with SNAP; evaluating CJ reforms in California; and improving policymaking through integrating data systems. APPAM Conference

Interview: Second look research series

CPL Researcher Alissa Skog discussed CPL’s series on second look resentencing policies. We find those policies led to 12,000 Californians being resentenced, 9,500 of whom have been released from prison. On the whole, reoffending for people released from these policies was lower compared to others released from prison. Podcast

Stanislaus college students who depend on CalFresh dread suspension of benefits

Savannah Parrish and Heather Oram, both students at Stanislaus State, explain how CalFresh benefits help them stretch their budgets and pay for food. Both plan to access the campus food pantry and local food banks in November if benefits are cut off. CPL’s research is cited, showing the Central Valley has the highest share of community college students receiving CalFresh.

Editorial: Some clarity on impact of justice reforms

This editorial about CPL’s recent second chance research series concludes: “The more clear data we have, the better. Without data to appropriately analyze what’s working or what isn’t, we’re left doing justice policy via competing slogans and vibes.”

Foster youth who age out of the system face uphill battle

Arlena Ortega talks about the challenges she faced aging out of the foster care system, and the help she received from First Place for Youth. The segment cites CPL’s recent report on opportunities to prevent homelessness among transition-aged youth.

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.