California Policy Lab September 2026 Newsletter

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Employment and earnings trends in LA 

Eighty percent of people experiencing homelessness in LA County had worked in California before enrolling in homeless services, according to new CPL research. We co-hosted a release event for this research with Chrysalis, a leading workforce services provider.  Co-Author Dr. Max Gross, Senior Researcher at CPL’s UCLA site, spoke with KNX News about the implications of the research. Policy Brief

Moderate decrease in AI-related unemployment claims in August

The August update of the California AI-Unemployment Tracker (CAIT) shows a small decrease in unemployment claims filed by workers in high-AI-exposure occupations. August update

CA homeless prevention bill becomes law

Yesterday, Governor Newsom signed AB 1924 (Gabriel & Quirk-Silva), which will require the state to develop a statewide homelessness prevention strategy. The bill was inspired in part by CPL’s homelessness prevention research, and Janey Rountree, Executive Director at CPL’s UCLA site, provided technical assistance to the bill’s authors.

Researcher, Homelessness and Health Policy at our UCLA site or remote

Job posting (next review is Oct 9th)

Follow our LinkedIn page for future opportunities.

Oct. 7th – California spotlight: wealth & poverty

California is one of the wealthiest states in the country, but also faces stark economic inequality. Evan White, Executive Director at CPL’s UC Berkeley site, will moderate a panel discussion on this topic with Prof. David Grusky, Prof. Marianne Page, and Dr. Samuel Trachtman. Oct 7, 4 – 5:30pm, at UC Berkeley. Registration

Oct. 19th – Preventing and solving homelessness: emerging research from CPL

Join us for a lunch-time briefing in Sacramento designed to provide an accessible introduction to the latest research on homelessness prevention, rapid re-housing, and employment and homelessness. Registration

Oct. 30th – Preparing California for the older workforce boom

Join CPL and partners for a lunchtime briefing where we’ll share new research on older workers plus projections for how the state’s older workforce is expected to change. Registration

Safety Net Dataset

We host this dataset of CalFresh and CalWORKs enrollments, for projects approved by the California Dept. of Social Services. All data is at the person-level and is anonymized and de-identified. Dataset eligibility information and application

Hosted research: Income and debt increasing

Beyond our own research, CPL also facilitates access to our data infrastructure for other researchers.

Since late 2022, a typical worker’s income rose by $109 a month, but their debt payments also rose $57. Jones, Nilaj, Hanks, & Bañez

Reducing Homelessness with Rapid Rehousing with Brian Blackwell

Brian Blackwell, Senior Data Scientist at CPL’s UCLA site, was recently interviewed on the UCLA Housing Voice Podcast about new CPL research showing that “leasing up” with a voucher reduced homeless service use over four years by 30% for individuals and 25% for families in LA.

“California’s tough on crime law promised treatment. Here’s why people are falling through the cracks”

This article cites CPL’s Prop 36 Dashboard, which is updated monthly, and shows that there were 568 admissions to prison between January 2025 and July 2026 for Prop 36 drug charges.

Why American relocations are plummeting

Evan White is interviewed in this article focused on links between mobility and the cost of living and “golden handcuffs” of low-interest rate mortgages. White is the co-author of two recent CPL reports focused on California migration patterns.

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