As of 2005, only two states—New Jersey and Utah—still paid cash welfare benefits to childless adults deemed "able-bodied" (many other states do allow such payments to be made if a disability is demonstrated).
Since 1933, California law has required counties to provide relief to the poor, including health care services and general assistance.
[3] Los Angeles County has the largest number of general assistance recipients in California and gives aid of $221 per month.
California has provided some form of general assistance since the mid-1800s, and much of the language can be traced back to the Pauper Act of 1901.
[3][4][5] San Francisco Proposition N of 2002, colloquially known as Care Not Cash, was a San Francisco ballot measure sponsored by Gavin Newsom designed to cut the money given in the General Assistance programs to homeless people in exchange for shelters and other forms of services.