Add Santa Clara County General Assistance Program

[hua7450]

Summary

Implements Santa Clara County General Assistance (GA), a 100% county-funded cash aid program for indigent adults without dependent children. The program is mandated by Cal. W&I Code § 17000 and operationally codified in the Santa Clara County GA Handbook (GA 100-289). Mirrors the existing Alameda County GA implementation 1-for-1 with two scoped additions: shared-housing MAP reductions (GA 282) and an expanded countable-income source list to match the SCC handbook.

Closes #8357

Regulatory Authority

• Cal. W&I Code § 17000 — state mandate requiring each county to relieve its indigent residents: https://california.public.law/codes/welfare_and_institutions_code_section_17000
• Cal. W&I Code § 17000.5 — optional state framework for a county GA standard of aid (not used by SCC): https://california.public.law/codes/ca_welf_and_inst_code_section_17000.5
• Santa Clara County GA Handbook — Policy chapter (GA 100-289) — operational rules (eligibility, income, payment): https://stgenssa.sccgov.org/debs/program_handbooks/general_assistance/assets/01Policy/Policy.htm
• GA Handbook — Shared Housing (GA 282): https://stgenssa.sccgov.org/debs/program_handbooks/general_assistance/assets/14Payment/Shared_Housing.htm
• GA Handbook — Personal Property (GA 180/181): https://stgenssa.sccgov.org/debs/program_handbooks/general_assistance/assets/08Property/Personal_Property.htm
• GA Handbook — Citizenship & Noncitizen Status (GA 141): https://stgenssa.sccgov.org/debs/program_handbooks/general_assistance/assets/07Citizens_Noncitizens/Non_Citizen_Status.htm
• GA Handbook — Types of Income: https://stgenssa.sccgov.org/debs/program_handbooks/general_assistance/assets/09Income/Types_Income.htm
• GA Need Standards Chart (MAP table by household size × shared-housing tier): https://stgenssa.sccgov.org/debs/program_handbooks/charts/assets/4GA/NeedStnds.htm
• GA-62 Program Information Sheet (public-facing summary, 2 pages): https://stgenssa.sccgov.org/debs/Forms/GA_62_en.pdf

Program Overview

• Administration: Santa Clara County Social Services Agency (SSA), Department of Employment & Benefit Services (DEBS)
• Funding: 100% county-funded
• Variable prefix: ca_scc_general_assistance
• Variable scope: SPMUnit-level benefit + income aggregation; Person-level eligibility — mirrors Alameda County GA structure
• Directories:
  • Parameters: policyengine_us/parameters/gov/local/ca/scc/general_assistance/
  • Variables: policyengine_us/variables/gov/local/ca/scc/
  • Tests: policyengine_us/tests/policy/baseline/gov/local/ca/scc/ga/

Eligibility Requirements

Requirement	Source	How Modeled
Age 18+	GA 112	ca_scc_general_assistance_age_eligible.py via age_threshold parameter
Santa Clara County resident	GA 140	in_scc.py (county_str == "SANTA_CLARA_COUNTY_CA")
US citizen or qualified non-citizen (6 statuses)	GA 141	ca_scc_general_assistance_immigration_status_eligible.py reading qualified_immigration_status.yaml
Personal property ≤ $500	GA 180	ca_scc_general_assistance_personal_property_eligible.py
Not receiving SSI / federal cash aid	GA 202	ca_scc_general_assistance_eligible_person.py (ssi == 0)
Tax-unit head or spouse	GA 200 framework	ca_scc_general_assistance_eligible_person.py via is_tax_unit_head_or_spouse
Countable income < MAP	GA 200	ca_scc_general_assistance_income_eligible.py (strict <)

Benefit Amounts (Need Standards Chart, GA 280; corroborated by GA-62)

Household Type	Monthly MAP
Single (1 person, unshared)	$343
Married couple (unshared)	$460

Effective date: 2016-04-01 (frozen since). AB 161's 0.3% MAP increase applies to CalWORKs only, not General Assistance.

Shared-Housing Reductions (GA 282) — extension beyond Alameda

Shared-housing tier	MAP reduction
Not shared	0%
Shared with 1 other	15%
Shared with 2 others	20%
Shared with 3+ others	25%

Implemented via a new Enum input variable ca_scc_general_assistance_shared_housing_status and the shared_housing/reduction.yaml parameter (breakdown keyed by the enum). Default is NOT_SHARED, so unconfigured households see no reduction. The reduction is applied inside ca_scc_general_assistance_base_amount.py as unshared * (1 - reduction[shared_status]).

Countable Income — extension beyond Alameda

Expanded from Alameda's 6 sources to 17 PolicyEngine variables to match the SCC handbook's Types-of-Income chapter:

employment_income, self_employment_income, sstb_self_employment_income, social_security, unemployment_compensation, veterans_benefits, workers_compensation, taxable_pension_income, tax_exempt_pension_income, taxable_interest_income, tax_exempt_interest_income, qualified_dividend_income, non_qualified_dividend_income, alimony_income, child_support_received, strike_benefits, rental_income.

All source variables were verified to exist in the codebase. Split sub-variables (taxable/tax-exempt, qualified/non-qualified) were preferred over parent aggregators so each line item appears explicitly.

Benefit Formula

Fill-the-gap:

GA = base − max(countable_income, 0)   (when eligible)
   = 0                                  (otherwise, via defined_for)

The inner max_(countable, 0) floors countable income at 0 to prevent negative-income inflation above the MAP (caught by edge-case tests at $-1M SE income — see Implementation Notes).

Requirements Coverage

16 in-scope requirements, 100% covered. See /tmp/santa-clara-ga-coverage-report.md for the full mapping (parameter file × variable file × test case per REQ).

Not Modeled

What	Source	Why Excluded
15-day continuous-presence residency	GA 140	Modeled only as a county boolean
Real-property deemed income (6% GMV/year)	GA 170	Not modeled in Alameda either
Self-employed categorical ineligibility	Types_Income	SE income still counted as countable
Sponsor-deeming for sponsored non-citizens	GA 114, 161-162	Not modeled
Public Works / job-search work requirements	GA 213, 215-219	Behavioral requirement
Sanction periods	GA 229	Behavioral
RCH / room-and-board / medical-institution MAP variants	Need Standards	Uses 1-person/married standard rates
Special needs payments (diet, transportation, in-home care)	GA 289	Not modeled
Lump-sum income disqualification	GA 203	Not modeled
IAR / Director's Exception / motor-vehicle exemption	GA-62, GA 113, GA 181	Edge cases not modeled

Files Added (28)

changelog.d/added/8358.md

policyengine_us/parameters/gov/local/ca/scc/general_assistance/
├── age_threshold.yaml
├── amount/
│   ├── married.yaml
│   └── single.yaml
├── countable_income/
│   └── sources.yaml
├── personal_property/
│   └── limit.yaml
├── qualified_immigration_status.yaml
└── shared_housing/
    └── reduction.yaml

policyengine_us/variables/gov/local/ca/scc/
├── in_scc.py
└── ga/
    ├── ca_scc_general_assistance.py
    ├── ca_scc_general_assistance_base_amount.py
    ├── ca_scc_general_assistance_shared_housing_status.py
    ├── eligibility/
    │   ├── ca_scc_general_assistance_age_eligible.py
    │   ├── ca_scc_general_assistance_eligible_person.py
    │   ├── ca_scc_general_assistance_immigration_status_eligible.py
    │   ├── ca_scc_general_assistance_income_eligible.py
    │   └── ca_scc_general_assistance_personal_property_eligible.py
    └── income/
        ├── ca_scc_general_assistance_countable_income.py
        └── ca_scc_general_assistance_countable_income_person.py

policyengine_us/tests/policy/baseline/gov/local/ca/scc/ga/
├── ca_scc_general_assistance.yaml
├── ca_scc_general_assistance_age_eligible.yaml
├── ca_scc_general_assistance_base_amount.yaml
├── ca_scc_general_assistance_countable_income.yaml
├── ca_scc_general_assistance_countable_income_person.yaml
├── ca_scc_general_assistance_eligible_person.yaml
├── ca_scc_general_assistance_immigration_status_eligible.yaml
├── ca_scc_general_assistance_income_eligible.yaml
├── ca_scc_general_assistance_personal_property_eligible.yaml
└── integration.yaml

Test Plan

• All 77 baseline tests pass locally: policyengine-core test policyengine_us/tests/policy/baseline/gov/local/ca/scc/ -c policyengine_us
• make format clean
• CI passes
• User review

Implementation Notes

• County abbreviation: scc (parallel to ala for Alameda; follows the 3-letter county-code convention).
• Reference implementation: policyengine_us/{variables,parameters}/gov/local/ca/ala/ (Alameda County GA).
• Bug avoided in in_scc.py: Alameda's in_ala.py checks county_str == "Alameda_COUNTY_CA" (mixed case), but county_str.decode_to_str() returns the ALL-UPPERCASE enum member name. Alameda's tests bypass this latent bug by setting in_ala: true directly. SCC's in_scc.py correctly uses "SANTA_CLARA_COUNTY_CA" (all uppercase), matching the working convention in Riverside (riv) and LA (la).
• Negative-income fix in ca_scc_general_assistance.py: The top-level variable uses an explicit formula(spm_unit, period, parameters) returning base - max_(countable, 0) rather than the typical adds/subtracts pattern. With adds=base and subtracts=countable, a negative countable income (e.g., self-employment losses) would compute base - (-N) = base + N, inflating the benefit far above the MAP. Edge-case tests with $-12K and $-1M SE income caught this; the fix floors countable income at 0 inside the subtraction, capping the benefit at the MAP.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 98.54015% with 2 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 98.54%. Comparing base (289712f) to head (ff78f67).
⚠️ Report is 7 commits behind head on main.

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
...licyengine_us/variables/gov/local/ca/scc/in_scc.py	77.77%	2 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@             Coverage Diff             @@
##             main    #8358       +/-   ##
===========================================
+ Coverage   70.38%   98.54%   +28.15%     
===========================================
  Files        4791       11     -4780     
  Lines       69837      137    -69700     
  Branches      345        0      -345     
===========================================
- Hits        49153      135    -49018     
+ Misses      20684        2    -20682     

Flag	Coverage Δ
unittests	98.54% <98.54%> (+28.15%)	⬆️

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