The 2026-27 Budget: Food Assistance Programs

Feb 18, 2026 - Able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) generally are limited to three months of CalFresh assistance in a three-year period unless they work or participate in qualifying activities for at least 20 hours per week.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5126

Implementing California’s Child Welfare Prevention Services Program

Jan 28, 2026 - In theory, counties will achieve foster care cost savings once they implement effective child welfare prevention services—meaning there is a natural incentive to invest in prevention programs. However, achieving those savings will require significant upfront investment, which may not be possible using only local funds.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5106

The 2026-27 Budget: County Administration and H.R. 1 Implementation

Mar 5, 2026 - Without a methodology that links funding to workload, funding could become insufficient or exceed what is required for efficient operations without a clear way of assessing what adjustments are needed.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5149

The 2026-27 Budget: CalWORKs

Feb 18, 2026 - It is unclear how the legal questions around the federal funding freeze will be resolved. Should the freeze be implemented, the state could be faced with losing access to federal TANF funding for weeks or longer.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5122

The 2026-27 Budget: In-Home Supportive Services

Mar 18, 2026 - We examine how these cost drivers have changed alongside policy changes in the program and the state overall. Taken together, these cost drivers account for much of the overall growth in the program.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5166

The 2026-27 Budget: Child Welfare

Mar 3, 2026 - To what extent and how have DSS and program partners been able to address these issues? Is further Legislative guidance (or anything else) needed to address any remaining barriers? For programs that received one-time funding or augmentations, how sustainable are program gains?
https://lao.ca.gov/publications/report/5147

The 2026-27 Budget: Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP) Program

Mar 3, 2026 - The state has full discretion over whether and how to provide increases to the SSP portion of the grant. Until it was ended in 2011, the state had a statutory annual COLA. These COLAs generally reflected whole-grant COLAs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5148

The 2026-27 Budget: Streamlining California’s Affordable Housing Funding System

Mar 6, 2026 - AHSC Merit to Moving Affordable Housing Awards to HDFC … Overall, having AHSC ’s affordable housing program at HDFC has the potential to simplify how developers build their capital stack. This is because, rather than having programs spread across SGC and other state entities, developers would be able to apply for funding at one place —HDFC .
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5154

Implementing California’s Child Welfare Prevention Services Program [Publication Details]

Jan 28, 2026 - This report discusses ongoing implementation of California’s Family First Prevention Services program since 2021-22.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5106