California Divide

State and local governments, and some private funders, are launching dozens of pilot projects making direct, monthly payments to low-income residents to help meet basic needs. Researchers will study what happens next. Key question: will this money add to, reform, or supplant current welfare programs?

Los Angeles and Oakland parents who received monthly cash without restrictions from new pilot programs said it did more than help them pay bills. What they gained, they said, was priceless — more time with their children.

California’s housing market is less affordable after mortgage interest rates drove up costs for many potential buyers last year.

For nearly three years, an increase in federal aid has allowed California to issue higher-than-usual amounts in food stamps. That ends in April.

A major UC Merced study and survey detail the harsh conditions many of California’s farmworkers experience at home and work. The issues are under a spotlight following the recent mass shootings at two mushroom farms.

The EBT cards the state uses to deliver financial assistance to low-income residents lack security features common to credit and debit cards. California officials plan to upgrade. Meanwhile, they're paying millions to replace stolen money and food stamps.

California’s first-in-the-nation task force on reparations agreed residents should qualify for compensation. But should certain “vulnerable” former residents, such as foster kids or ex-prisoners, be eligible?

Seven years after the Safe and Responsible Drivers Act gave undocumented residents a license to drive, the state is ready to expand its impact, but the law still has detractors.

The task force members are discussing monetary and nonmonetary reparations ideas to compensate for slavery and racism. Some say they want policies to prevent future harms against Black Californians.

The Supreme Court is keeping in place, for now, Title 42 — the pandemic policy that OK’d migrant expulsions. California has yet to figure out how to meet the needs of an influx of migrants when it does go away, especially given that the state is confronting a projected budget deficit of $24 billion for the next fiscal year.