This study examines services use and related costs for two cohorts of General Relief (GR) recipients in Los Angeles County. The study is made possible by the creation of the Adult Linkages Project (ALP), a data warehouse containing data on the GR recipients that spans eight Los Angeles County departments. This integration of data sources and County departments enables a unique window into the comprehensive use of County services by GR recipients, and allows for the exploration of hidden costs that GR recipients incur to Los Angeles County. The identification of such services use patterns forms the basis for service interventions that can provide GR recipients with more efficient, more effective, and more coordinated services.

The GR recipients for this analysis belong to one of two cohorts. The first cohort, referred to as the first-time user cohort, contains all persons who were certified to receive

GR benefits for the first time in the first quarter of 2006. The second cohort, referred to as the long-term user cohort, is comprised of persons who had been certified for GR services prior to 2006, did not use any GR services in 2005, and were re-certified for GR in the first or second quarter of 2006. The data on receipt of GR benefits spans the time period January 2006 through October 2007. Data from other County services often spans longer time periods, meaning that data on services use is available prior to the date GR assistance was initiated and in most cases also after the last month of GR receipt in the time period.

The study is divided into five sections. The first section is the longest, and examines the services use by the GR cohorts across Department of Public Social Services and six other County departments. In the second section, these findings across individual departments are integrated to provide a more comprehensive view of the extent and costs of County services to these cohorts, and identify heavy services users among these cohorts. The third section looks at the extent to which certain recipient characteristics, including disability, homelessness, and employment, affect the propensity to use County services. The fourth section provides a geographic analysis of GR receipt. Finally, the fifth section discusses implications for policy and research based on these findings.