Abstract
The California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) Homeless Assistance program provides assistance to eligible families who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness. On January 1st, 2017, Assembly Bill (AB) 1603 allowed eligible CalWORKs families to receive Homeless Assistance once every 12 months instead of once-in-a-lifetime. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of AB 1603 on service utilization one year before (January to December 2016) and one year after (January to December 2017) its implementation on a number of variables to gain a better understanding on the plight of family homelessness among welfare recipients. This study included secondary data gathered from the California Department of Social Services for 10 counties. Paired sample t-tests revealed statistically significant findings in Homeless Assistance requests (t(9) = -3.39, p < .01) approvals (t(9) = -2.99, p < .02), and net expenditures (t(9) = -2.42, p = .04).