Add Marin County, CA General Relief program

[hua7450]

Summary

Implements California Marin County General Relief (GR) in PolicyEngine — a county-funded and county-administered cash-aid (loan) program of last resort, mandated statewide by CA Welfare & Institutions Code §17000 et seq. and operated by the Marin County Department of Health & Human Services under Board-approved Program Policies and Standards.

This models the post-July-1-2025 version of the program. The July 1, 2025 reform raised liquid-asset limits and eliminated Income-in-Kind reductions and work-requirement sanctions; all parameters are effective 2025-07-01 (single era).

The program is implemented as a local program at gov/local/ca/marin/general_relief and is intentionally left un-wired into household-level benefit aggregators, matching the existing LA County and Riverside County General Relief implementations (both of which exist as standalone SPMUnit variables and are not wired into any household aggregator).

Closes #8582

Regulatory Authority

• Marin County General Relief Program Policies and Standards (Board-approved, Sep 2017) — authoritative for income counting, mandatory-deductions-only rule, SSI/SSP ineligibility, age, citizenship/PRUCOL, and personal-property limits: https://marin.granicus.com/DocumentViewer.php?file=marin_ce4ed1aaf509aaf7176c360d26f8f1c6.pdf
  • Grant amounts $387 / $636 — Section III.F "Amount of Cash Aid" (#page=17)
  • Income counting, mandatory deductions only, SSI/SSP ineligible — Section II.I (#page=11)
  • Personal property limit — Section II.G (#page=11)
  • Citizenship / PRUCOL — Section II.E (#page=10)
  • Note: the Standards PDF body documents the pre-reform liquid-asset limits ($200 / $400, Section II.H, #page=11) — now modeled as the pre-2025-07-01 era and superseded by the $400 / $800 reform values — and an Income-in-Kind chart (Section II.P), which the July 1, 2025 reform eliminated (out of scope).
• Live Marin HHS General Relief page (most current; page last updated May 7, 2026): https://hhs.marincounty.gov/services/get-cash-assistance-myself-general-relief/general-relief-cash-assistance
• Marin HHS GR brochure (Rev. 6.9.25; current post-reform figures): https://www.marinhhs.org/sites/default/files/files/servicepages/2025_06/hhs_gr_brochure_6.9.25.pdf
• County news release (June 18, 2025; documents the July 1, 2025 reform deltas — raised asset limits, eliminated Income-in-Kind & sanctions): https://www.marincounty.gov/news-releases/county-general-relief-transitions-board-approved-standards-aid-regulations
• CA Welfare & Institutions Code §17000 et seq. (statewide General Relief mandate)

Program Overview

• Administration: County-administered (Marin County HHS, Division of Social Services)
• Funding: County funds (legally a loan / Interim Assistance Reimbursement when the client later receives SSI or CAPI — the loan/repayment nature is not modeled)
• Type: Cash aid of last resort for adults without dependent children

Eligibility Tests

Requirement	Source	How Modeled
Must reside in Marin County	Standards §II.A; Live HHS page	in_marin = county_str == "MARIN_COUNTY_CA"; all GR variables chain defined_for = "in_marin"
Head/applicant must be aged ≥ 18	Std §II.C, p.10; Live HHS page ("Adults aged 18 or older")	age_head >= 18 (parameter eligibility/age_threshold.yaml). Married/emancipated-under-18 exception not modeled (rare).
Citizen / LPR / PRUCOL	Std §II.E, p.10; Live HHS page	Person-level immigration_status (qualified-status list parameter) checked only for the tax-unit head or spouse (the applicant); the unit is eligible if ≥ 1 such applicant qualifies. PRUCOL approximated (see Not Modeled).
Liquid (cash & bank) assets ≤ $400 single / $800 couple	News release; Live HHS page; Brochure (raised from $200 / $400)	spm_unit_cash_assets <= where(married, $800, $400); the limit is evaluated monthly so the 2025-07-01 increase applies mid-year
Personal property ≤ $600 single / $1,200 couple	Std §II.G, p.11; Live HHS page	add(spm_unit, period, ["personal_property"]) <= where(married, $1,200, $600)
Net countable income ≤ max grant (inclusive)	Std §II.I, p.11; Brochure ("income not higher than $387/$636")	Monthly net income <= monthly max grant. The brochure phrases the limit as "not higher than," so the at-or-below boundary is inclusive (<=).
SSI/SSP recipients ineligible	Std §II.I, p.11	Unit ineligible if any member has ssi > 0
No dependent children (adults only)	Live HHS page; Std §II.C, p.10	Unit ineligible if it contains a dependent child (is_tax_unit_dependent & is_child). Tax-dependency approximates ≥50% custody; the married/emancipated-under-18 exception is not modeled.

The top-level ca_marin_general_relief_eligible (SPMUnit, MONTH) ANDs all of the above sub-tests.

Income

• Gross countable income (ca_marin_general_relief_gross_income, Person) sums an income_sources list parameter — earned income, self-employment income, unemployment compensation, state disability insurance, veterans' benefits, and Social Security. SSI is excluded from the list because SSI recipients are categorically ineligible (including it would be moot and could mask the categorical bar).
• Net countable income (ca_marin_general_relief_net_income, SPMUnit) = max(gross income − mandatory withholdings, 0), using spm_unit_paycheck_withholdings (FICA = Social Security + Medicare, plus federal and state income tax). The Standards allow mandatory deductions only — there is no general earned-income disregard.
• CalWORKs is not counted as income: an earlier version added CalWORKs cash (ca_tanf) to net income to exclude families with children, but that only caught families on CalWORKs and missed dependent households CalWORKs-ineligible for non-income reasons (e.g. an over-limit vehicle leaves ca_tanf = 0). Families with children are now excluded directly by the no-dependent-children eligibility gate (see Eligibility), so CalWORKs is not added to income.
• No double-dipping with SSI/CAPI/CalWORKs: SSI/SSP recipients are categorically barred (ssi > 0); CalWORKs recipients have dependent children and are excluded by the no-dependents gate; CAPI (California's SSI-equivalent for immigrants) needs no separate check — CAPI recipients are non-qualified noncitizens who fail the GR citizenship requirement, so the immigration test already prevents any GR+CAPI overlap.
• Documented limitation: spm_unit_paycheck_withholdings does not include the employee SDI/UI contributions, which the Standards also list as mandatory deductions. We don't subtract SDI/UI at the moment (matches the LA County GR proxy). The net-income floor at 0 is applied inside ca_marin_general_relief_net_income; the income test and benefit subtraction read net income at the monthly period, so PolicyEngine auto-divides the annual figure by 12 (no explicit ÷ 12 in the formula).
• Income-eligibility boundary: inclusive <= — a household with net income exactly equal to the grant is income-eligible (and receives a $0 partial grant).

Benefit Calculation

Category	Monthly Max Grant	Source
Single individual	$387	Std §III.F, p.17; Live HHS page; Brochure
Married couple	$636	Std §III.F, p.17; Live HHS page; Brochure

• The married-couple amount is stored directly as $636 — it is NOT 2× the single rate ($636 ≠ $774).
• The couple rate applies only when the unit is a married couple and both members are immigration-eligible; if one spouse is immigration-ineligible, the unit falls back to the single rate (mirrors LA County GR and avoids the defined_for half-benefit trap).
• Benefit = max(max grant − monthly net countable income, 0), computed directly in the top-level ca_marin_general_relief (MONTH).

Requirements Coverage

REQ	Description	Parameter	Variable	Test
REQ-001	Marin residence	—	in_marin	in_marin.yaml
REQ-002	Top-level eligibility (ANDs all)	—	ca_marin_general_relief_eligible	eligibility/ca_marin_general_relief_eligible.yaml (7 cases)
REQ-003	Age ≥ 18	eligibility/age_threshold.yaml (18)	ca_marin_general_relief_age_eligible	eligibility/ca_marin_general_relief_age_eligible.yaml
REQ-004	Person qualified immigration status	qualified_immigration_status.yaml	..._immigration_status_eligible_person	..._immigration_status_eligible_person.yaml (8 cases)
REQ-005	Unit-level ≥ 1 immigration-eligible	—	inlined any() in ..._eligible	integration cases 7, 16, 21
REQ-006/007	Liquid assets ≤ $400 / $800	eligibility/limit/liquid_assets/{single,married}.yaml	..._liquid_asset_limit, ..._liquid_asset_eligible	..._liquid_asset_limit.yaml, ..._liquid_asset_eligible.yaml
REQ-008	Personal property ≤ $600 / $1,200	eligibility/limit/personal_property/{single,married}.yaml	..._personal_property_limit, ..._personal_property_eligible	..._personal_property_limit.yaml, ..._personal_property_eligible.yaml
REQ-009	Gross income (SSI excluded)	income_sources.yaml	..._gross_income	covered via net income + integration
REQ-010	Net = max(gross − withholdings, 0)	—	..._net_income	income/ca_marin_general_relief_net_income.yaml (5 cases incl. floor)
REQ-011	Income ≤ max grant (inclusive <=)	—	..._income_eligible	eligibility/ca_marin_general_relief_income_eligible.yaml (6 cases incl. boundary)
REQ-012	SSI/SSP recipients barred	—	(in ..._eligible: ~(ssi > 0))	..._eligible.yaml + integration Case 6
REQ-013/013a	Benefit = max(grant − net, 0)	amount/{single,married}.yaml (387 / 636)	ca_marin_general_relief, ..._max_grant	..._max_grant.yaml (3), integration.yaml (22 cases)
REQ-014	PRUCOL approximated via humanitarian list	qualified_immigration_status.yaml	..._immigration_status_eligible_person	..._immigration_status_eligible_person.yaml
REQ-019	Adults without dependent children	—	dependent-child gate (is_tax_unit_dependent & is_child) in ..._eligible	..._eligible.yaml (dependent-child case) + integration Case 22

15 in-scope requirements (REQ-001..014 + REQ-019). Coverage is ~100% of in-scope requirements.

Not Modeled (by design)

What	Source	Why Excluded
6-month / 12-month employable cumulative time limit	Std §I.G, p.8; News release	PolicyEngine doesn't track cumulative months of receipt at the moment (known framework limitation)
Work-program participation; fleeing-felon; probation/parole & incarceration; CalWORKs-sanction; student financial-aid rules; responsible-relative & sponsor deeming; real-property look-back; SSN-application; must-apply-for-other-aid as a hard gate; IAR loan-repayment nature	Standards §§II.B, II.D, II.F, II.J–II.N	Out of household-model scope / not simulatable at the moment
Income-in-Kind reductions and work-requirement sanctions	News release; Std §II.P (superseded)	Eliminated by the July 1, 2025 reform — not active rules
Exact <50%-custody determination; married/emancipated-under-18 exception; §II.L sanction / 48-month-clock specifics	Std §II.C; Std §II.L; Live HHS page	The no-dependent-children rule is now gated (a unit with a dependent child is ineligible). <50% custody is approximated via tax-dependency; the married/emancipated-under-18 exception and the §II.L sanction / 48-month-clock details are not separately modeled.
Exact PRUCOL status	Std §II.E, p.10	No PRUCOL enum member exists; approximated via humanitarian immigration statuses (refugee, asylee, Cuban/Haitian entrant, deportation-withheld, conditional entrant, parolee), excluding undocumented/DACA/TPS
SDI/UI mandatory deductions	Std §II.I, p.11	spm_unit_paycheck_withholdings covers FICA + income tax but not SDI/UI; we don't subtract SDI/UI at the moment (matches LA County GR)
Household-aggregator wiring	—	Left un-wired, matching the existing LA County and Riverside County GR implementations

Files Added

policyengine_us/parameters/gov/local/ca/marin/general_relief/
├── amount/
│   ├── single.yaml                                 # $387/mo
│   └── married.yaml                                # $636/mo (stored directly, not 2×)
├── eligibility/
│   ├── age_threshold.yaml                          # 18
│   └── limit/
│       ├── liquid_assets/
│       │   ├── single.yaml                         # $400
│       │   └── married.yaml                        # $800
│       └── personal_property/
│           ├── single.yaml                         # $600
│           └── married.yaml                        # $1,200
├── income_sources.yaml                             # countable income list (excludes SSI)
└── qualified_immigration_status.yaml               # PRUCOL-approximation status list

policyengine_us/variables/gov/local/ca/marin/
├── in_marin.py
└── general_relief/
    ├── ca_marin_general_relief.py                  # top-level benefit
    ├── ca_marin_general_relief_max_grant.py
    ├── eligibility/
    │   ├── ca_marin_general_relief_eligible.py
    │   ├── ca_marin_general_relief_age_eligible.py
    │   ├── ca_marin_general_relief_income_eligible.py
    │   ├── immigration/
    │   │   └── ca_marin_general_relief_immigration_status_eligible_person.py
    │   ├── liquid_assets/
    │   │   ├── ca_marin_general_relief_liquid_asset_limit.py
    │   │   └── ca_marin_general_relief_liquid_asset_eligible.py
    │   └── personal_property/
    │       ├── ca_marin_general_relief_personal_property_limit.py
    │       └── ca_marin_general_relief_personal_property_eligible.py
    └── income/
        ├── ca_marin_general_relief_gross_income.py
        └── ca_marin_general_relief_net_income.py

policyengine_us/tests/policy/baseline/gov/local/ca/marin/
├── in_marin.yaml
└── general_relief/
    ├── ca_marin_general_relief_max_grant.yaml
    ├── integration.yaml                            # 22 cases
    ├── eligibility/
    │   ├── ca_marin_general_relief_eligible.yaml   # 7 cases
    │   ├── ca_marin_general_relief_age_eligible.yaml
    │   ├── ca_marin_general_relief_income_eligible.yaml  # 6 cases incl. boundary
    │   ├── immigration/
    │   │   └── ca_marin_general_relief_immigration_status_eligible_person.yaml  # 8 cases
    │   ├── liquid_assets/
    │   │   ├── ca_marin_general_relief_liquid_asset_limit.yaml
    │   │   └── ca_marin_general_relief_liquid_asset_eligible.yaml
    │   └── personal_property/
    │       ├── ca_marin_general_relief_personal_property_limit.yaml
    │       └── ca_marin_general_relief_personal_property_eligible.yaml
    └── income/
        └── ca_marin_general_relief_net_income.yaml  # 5 cases incl. floor

changelog.d/ca-marin-gr.added.md

9 parameters, 13 variables, 12 test files (74 YAML tests passing), plus the changelog fragment.

Test plan

• 74 YAML tests pass (policyengine-core test policyengine_us/tests/policy/baseline/gov/local/ca/marin/ -c policyengine_us)
• All GR variables run through full-CPS Microsimulation() and a synthetic mixed population with no exceptions (verifies vectorized county-string comparison, immigration-list np.isin, and YEAR/MONTH period mixing)
• Integration tests compute SSI and CalWORKs (ca_tanf) from the model and assert them as outputs (no stubbed benefit inputs)
• make format clean
• CI passes

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 100.00%. Comparing base (bd1ae42) to head (da4d6a1).
⚠️ Report is 2 commits behind head on main.

Additional details and impacted files

@@             Coverage Diff              @@
##             main     #8583       +/-   ##
============================================
+ Coverage   77.77%   100.00%   +22.22%     
============================================
  Files           1        13       +12     
  Lines           9       169      +160     
============================================
+ Hits            7       169      +162     
+ Misses          2         0        -2     

Flag	Coverage Δ
unittests	100.00% <100.00%> (+22.22%)	⬆️

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