By Shalina Chatlani, Stateline.org
NEW YORK — After a 12 months within the U.S. Navy, Loceny Kamara mentioned he was discharged in 2023, as a result of whereas on base he had developed psychological well being points, together with extreme nervousness and nightmares, and had fallen into alcoholism.
Kamara, 23, went to rehab and managed to get sober for a while whereas residing with household within the Bronx, he mentioned. However after he misplaced his job as a safety guard in December, Kamara was kicked out of his dwelling. Now he lives at a veterans homeless shelter in Lengthy Island Metropolis, a neighborhood in Queens, New York, and he depends on the Supplemental Diet Help Program — generally referred to as meals stamps — and odd jobs to make ends meet.
Every month, practically 42 million folks obtain SNAP advantages to assist complement their grocery budgets. In a position-bodied SNAP recipients who’re between 18 and 54 and don’t have youngsters have all the time been required to work. Veterans, nevertheless, have been exempt from these guidelines — however that’s about to vary.
The large home coverage measure that President Donald Trump signed on July 4 eliminates that exemption. Starting in 2026, veterans must show they’re working, volunteering, collaborating in job coaching, or on the lookout for work for no less than 80 hours a month to maintain their meals stamps past three months, except they qualify for an additional exemption, resembling having sure disabilities.
Republicans in Congress and conservatives who helped formulate the legislation say these eligibility modifications are essential to cease individuals who may very well be working from abusing the system. However critics say the change fails to take into consideration the limitations many veterans face, and that the brand new work guidelines will trigger hundreds of veterans to go hungry.
“I’m pissed. I imply, I can’t get a job. Nowhere to reside,” mentioned Kamara. As he spoke, Kamara pointed to his collared shirt, noting that he had simply dressed as much as interview for a job as a safety guard. He realized that morning he hadn’t gotten the job.
“I’ve been out of labor for eight months,” Kamara advised Stateline. “It’s laborious to get a job proper now for everyone.”
Veterans depend upon SNAP
Nationally, round 1.2 million veterans with decrease incomes, or about 8% of the whole veteran inhabitants of 16.2 million, depend on meals stamps for themselves and their households, in accordance with the Heart on Price range and Coverage Priorities, a left-leaning analysis group.
An evaluation by the group discovered veterans are likely to have decrease charges of employment as a result of they usually tend to have well being circumstances, resembling traumatic mind accidents, that make it tough for them to work. Additionally they are likely to have much less formal training, although many have specialised expertise from their time within the navy.
There was a piece requirement for many SNAP recipients since 1996. However Robert Rector, a senior analysis fellow at The Heritage Basis, a conservative suppose tank, mentioned the foundations have “by no means actually been enforced.” Rector argued that able-bodied individuals who have been exempt from the work requirement, resembling veterans and homeless folks, create an pointless burden on the system if they’re able to working however don’t.
“Most people which might be on this class reside in households with different folks that have incomes, and so there actually isn’t a continual meals scarcity right here,” Rector mentioned in an interview. “We’ve got tens of hundreds of free meals banks that folks can go to. So it’s only a requirement to nudge these folks within the correct path, and it ought to not go unenforced.”
Darryl Chavis, 62, mentioned that view ignores the difficulties that many veterans face. When Chavis left the U.S. Military at 21 after two years of service, he mentioned, he was “severely depressed.”
“No one even got here to assist me,” mentioned Chavis, who served as a watercraft operator, liable for working and sustaining tugboats, barges and different touchdown craft.
Chavis mentioned he was recognized with post-traumatic stress dysfunction, which has made it tough for him to maintain a job. He simply moved again to New York from Virginia after leaving a relationship. He’s been on the housing shelter in Lengthy Island Metropolis since January.
“What I’m attempting to do is get settled in to, you realize, stabilize into an house. I’ve the credentials to get a job. So it’s not like I’m not gonna search for a job. I’ve to work. I’m in transition, and the obstacles don’t make it straightforward,” Chavis mentioned.
The brand new SNAP work guidelines apply to all able-bodied adults between 55 and 64 who don’t have dependents, and fogeys with youngsters above the age of 14. Some teams, resembling asylum-seekers and refugees, are not eligible for this system.
Barbara Guinn, commissioner of the New York State Workplace of Short-term and Incapacity Help, estimates that round 300,000 New Yorkers may lose SNAP advantages because of work necessities. Of these, round 22,000 are veterans, homeless or growing old out of foster care, she mentioned. Virtually 3 million New Yorkers relied on SNAP as of March 2025.
Veterans in different states are in an analogous state of affairs. In California, an estimated 115,000 veterans obtain SNAP advantages, in accordance with a research by the Heart on Price range and Coverage Priorities. The quantity is sort of 100,000 in Florida and Texas, and 49,000 in Georgia.
Between 2015 and 2019 about 11% of veterans between the ages of 18 and 64 lived in meals insecure households, that means that they had restricted or unsure entry to meals, in accordance with the U.S. Division of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP.
“We all know that SNAP is one of the simplest ways to assist handle starvation. It will get advantages on to people,” Guinn mentioned. “There are different ways in which folks can get help in the event that they want it, via meals banks or different charitable organizations, however we don’t suppose that these organizations can have the capability to choose up the wants.”
A better burden on states
Along with the work rule modifications, the brand new legislation reduces federal funding for SNAP by about $186 billion via 2034 — a minimize of roughly 20%, in accordance with the Congressional Price range Workplace, an impartial analysis arm of Congress. The federal authorities expects the brand new work necessities to cut back SNAP spending by $69 billion as individuals who don’t comply are dropped from the rolls.
SNAP has traditionally been funded by the federal authorities, with states choosing up a part of the price of administering this system. Below the brand new legislation, states must cowl between 5% and 15% of SNAP prices beginning in fiscal 12 months 2028, relying on how precisely they distribute advantages to people who find themselves eligible for this system.
“This has been a strategic agenda to dismantle SNAP and accountable states for doing so, as a result of they knew they’re making it so extremely burdensome to run and function and unaffordable,” mentioned Gina Plata-Nino, SNAP deputy director on the Meals Analysis & Motion Heart, a poverty and starvation advocacy group.
“States are going to have to chop one thing, as a result of there’s no surplus. There are not any limitless assets that states might have so as to have the ability to offset the hurt.”
Guinn mentioned New York expects to see a brand new value burden of no less than $1.4 billion annually. In California, new state prices may whole as a lot as $3.7 billion yearly, in accordance with the California Division of Social Companies.
Kaitlynne Yancy, director of membership applications at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, mentioned many veterans with disabilities will be unable to satisfy the work necessities or discover assets elsewhere. And it’s unclear whether or not states will have the ability to present their very own aid to people who find themselves not exempted from work necessities or might be excluded from this system.
“It’s a irritating factor to see, particularly for these which were prepared to place every thing on the road and sacrifice every thing for this nation if their nation known as them to take action,” she mentioned.
Yancy, 35, served within the U.S. Navy from 2010 to 2014. She started to make use of meals stamps and the Medicaid program, the general public medical insurance program for folks with decrease incomes, as she navigated life’s challenges. They included going again to highschool to pursue her bachelor’s diploma, turning into a single mom, and a leukemia prognosis for one among her youngsters. Frequent journeys to the hospital made it laborious for her to work steadily or attend college for 20 hours every week, she mentioned.
Guinn mentioned the brand new guidelines will create important administrative challenges, too; even SNAP recipients who’re working will battle to show it.
“Possibly they’re working one month, they’ve a job, after which their employer cuts their hours the following month,” Guinn advised Stateline. “There are mechanisms for folks to add documentation as wanted to display compliance with this system, however from an administrative standpoint, proper now, we don’t have any super-high-tech automated means of doing this.”
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