Repository navigation
Riverside GR: resolve eligibility at exactly $500 of combined property #10232
Description
Methodology question
Riverside County General Relief has conflicting source descriptions at exactly $500 of combined countable property. Resolve the operative rule against an authoritative copy of DPSS Manual DP 90-001 page 22 before changing eligibility.
The public DPSS fact sheet, page 1, states:
Total combined property cannot exceed $500
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20210713051521/http://dpss.co.riverside.ca.us/files/pdf/dpss-general-assistance.pdf#page=1. Archived 2021-07-13; retrieved 2026-10-14, SHA-256 5760c47280bfb42f8f60cd2d1243f4a77a2443edf6a0a28cf8e1b4c9c103f130.
The contributor's summary linked from #6252 says both:
Countable property must not exceed $500 (p.22).
Eligibility is established if countable property is less than $500.
Summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ht5Cz4flMIj2DE2soC6ir3e0s3hQ7l7DfVxW7zaPM7o/edit. This is a secondary summary, not the county manual. The embedded original-manual link https://drive.google.com/file/d/13pJluJb86RlUo225qJBaTjqkEyM6k0C7/view required Google sign-in in an unauthenticated retrieval attempt on 2026-10-14.
Both readings and their consequences
| Reading | Comparator | $499.99 | Exactly $500 | $500.01 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inclusive public fact-sheet wording, also the summary's first statement | countable_property <= 500 |
passes property test | passes property test | fails property test |
| Strict summary wording, currently modeled | countable_property < 500 |
passes property test | fails property test | fails property test |
Only units with exactly $500 change property eligibility between the readings. Under an otherwise eligible two-adult #9901 Case 8 setup with zero countable income, the modeled grant would be $0 under the strict test or $436 + $30/12 = $438.50 per month under the inclusive test. This is conditional model arithmetic, not an independently verified county award.
Current production code is policyengine_us/variables/gov/local/ca/riv/general_relief/eligibility/ca_riv_general_relief_property_eligible.py, which uses < p.limit. Existing eligibility/ca_riv_general_relief_property_eligible.yaml Case 2 already inputs countable property 500 and asserts false. Thus a test of the current boundary exists; the missing decision is which boundary is legally correct. #9901 additionally tests that an SPM unit's combined property is $400 cash + $25 countable vehicles + $50 and $25 member property = $500 in a monthly request, without selecting a different eligibility rule.
Acceptance criteria
- Obtain page 22 of DP 90-001 and its revision/effective date, or written authoritative Riverside DPSS clarification. Record whether the fact-sheet wording is a summary, whether rules changed across dates, and the operative comparator.
- Maintainers choose and explain one reading; this issue deliberately makes no choice.
- Pin property eligibility immediately below, at, and immediately above $500, including a multi-member combined-property input. If inclusive is adopted, change the existing exact-$500 expectation and production comparator together. If strict is adopted, retain the false expectation and cite the supporting source.
- Align the queued Axiom property-eligibility extension with the decision. The current aggregation dispatch in Queue Riverside County GR combined-property parity for PolicyEngine/policyengine-us#9901 TheAxiomFoundation/rulespec-us#1774 leaves eligibility deferred.
Related: #9901, #6252, TheAxiomFoundation/axiom-corpus#889. Existing #7161 concerned assistance-unit size zero and is a different bug. A title search for Riverside found no existing open boundary issue on 2026-10-15.
Activity