In 2018, PILP and California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc.provided technical assistance to 5Cities Homeless Coalition, a community partner that represented a San Luis Obispo County resident who was wrongfully denied General Assistance (GA) benefits due to a drug-felony conviction. In providing technical assistance on this matter, other serious problems with the GA program were discovered, including that the County did not provide housing aid to unhoused persons. In response to PILP’s demand letter, the County adopted regulations for its GA program for the first time in more than 25 years, ushering in important changes, including same-day application processing (which is rare in the administration of GA benefits) and issuing housing aid to unhoused persons, immediately affecting about 100 recipients.

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