Rules Committee advances technical fix to expand eligibility under County Adult Assistance Program

The Rules Committee on Feb. 1 voted to forward to the full Board an ordinance from the Human Services Agency that would amend the County Adult Assistance Program (CAP) to expand eligibility for three local CAP components: Personal Assistance Employment Services (PAES), Cash Assistance Linked to Medi‑Cal (CALM) and the Supplemental Security Income–pending (SSI‑pending) program.

Susie Smith, Deputy Director for Policy and Planning at HSA, told the committee the ordinance is a technical fix to reconcile local ordinance language with state law. Under state Welfare and Institutions Code rules and CalWORKs policy, a parent who has reached CalWORKs’ 48‑month time limit is barred from receiving CalWORKs or county general assistance; the proposed local change would allow a single adult who has an 18‑year‑old child not in their care to access CAP’s other three components even if they are barred from CalWORKs. Smith characterized the expected caseload impact as small — “anywhere from, I’d say, 2 to 10 a year” — but said some eligible people may not have applied because of the earlier wording.

Smith outlined CAP’s four subprograms, said three are governed by local ordinance while one is governed by state law, and explained the goal of CAP is to help indigent adults with barriers to employment or transition people with disabilities to federal SSI. Committee members asked no substantive questions; supervisors praised the change and expressed willingness to co‑sponsor. The item will be placed on the Board agenda for final consideration.