62 -year -old Darryl Chavis served in the American army for two years as a craft operator. He stands in front of the residence of Borden Avenue Veterans, a low housing facility in the Long Island City district in Queens, New York, where he lives. Chavis is based on an additional nutritional assistance program (SNAP) and worries about the fresh work requirements for the program, commonly known as food vouchers. (Photo Shalin Chatlani/Stateline)
New York – after a year in the American Navy, the location of Kamara said that it was written in 2023, because during the base he developed problems with mental health, including forceful fear and nightmares, and fell into alcoholism.
Kamara, 23 years elderly, went to rehabilitation and for some time he managed to sobo it, living with his family in Bronx, he said. But after he lost his job as a bodyguard in December, Kamara was thrown out of the house. Now he lives in a homeless veterans’ shelter at Long Island City in New York and consists in a nutritional program, commonly known as food vouchers, and strange work related to the end.
Each month, almost 42 million people receive SNAP benefits to supplement the food budgets. The perpetrators of the SNAP recipients, who are from 18 to 54 years elderly and do not have children, always had to work. Veterans, however, were dismissed from these rules – but this will change soon.
The giant national political policy, which President Donald Trump signed on July 4, eliminates this release. Starting from 2026, veterans will have to prove that they work, volunteer, participate in vocational training or are looking for a job for at least 80 hours a month to keep their food vouchers for more than three months, unless they qualify for another dismissal, such as certain disability.
Republicans in Congress and conservatives who helped formulate the law, say that these qualifying changes are necessary to stop people who could work before the system abuse. But critics say that the change does not take into account the barriers that many veterans are facing, and that the fresh work rules will cause hunger for thousands of veterans.
“I’m pissed off. I mean I can’t find a job. I don’t live anywhere,” said Kamara. Saying, Kamara pointed to his pious shirt, noticing that he had just dressed for an interview for work as a security guard. He found out that morning he didn’t get a job.
“I haven’t worked for eight months,” said Kamara Stateline. “It’s hard to find a job for everyone now.”
Veterans depend on Snap
Throughout the country, about 1.2 million veterans with lower income, i.e. about 8% of the total veterans population of 16.2 million, is based on food sheets for themselves and their families, in accordance with the center of budget and political priorities, a leftist research group.
The analysis carried out by the group showed that veterans usually have lower employment indicators, because they have health conditions more often, such as traumatic brain injuries that make it hard to work. They also have a less formal education, although many have specialized skills since working in the army.
There was a requirement for most SNAP recipients Since 1996. But Robert Rector, an older researcher at Heritage Foundation, a conservative Think Tank, said that the rules “were never enforced.” Rector argued that proficient people who were released from the requirement of work, such as veterans and homeless people, constitute an unnecessary burden on the system if they are able to work, but not.
“Most people who are in this category live in households with other people who have income, so there is really no shortage of chronic food here,” said Rector in an interview. “We have tens of thousands of free food banks that people can go to. So it’s just a requirement to poke these people in the right direction, and you shouldn’t be unhappy anymore.”
Over 3 million people lost SNAP benefits based on Bill GOP, according to an impartial report
62 -year -old Darryl Chavis said that the view ignores the difficulties encountered by many veterans. When Chavis left the American army at the age of 21 after two years of service, he said he was “seriously depressed.”
“Nobody even helped me,” said Chavis, who served as an operator of floating units, responsible for servicing and maintaining tugs, shoulders and other landing crafts.
Chavis said he was diagnosed with post -traumatic stress team, which made him work. He just returned to New York from Virginia after leaving the relationship. He has been at the Long Island City housing shelter since January.
“I’m trying to deal with, you know, stabilize myself to the apartment. I have certificates to find a job. So it’s not like I won’t look for a job. I have to work. I go through and the obstacles are not easy,” said Chavis.
The fresh rules of the work of Snap Work apply to all proficient adults between 55 and 64 who do not have people who do not support and parents with children over 14 years of age. Some groups, such as people applying for asylum and refugees, no longer qualify for the program.
Barbara Guinn, the Commissioner of the Office for Temporary Assistance and Disability in New York, estimates that about 300,000 New Yorkers may lose SNAP benefits due to work requirements. She said that about 22,000 were veterans, homeless people or aging of foster care. Almost 3 million New Yorkers have been to Snap since March 2025.
Veterans in other states are in a similar situation. In California, approximately 115,000 veterans receive SNAP benefits, in accordance with the study conducted by the Budget and Policy Priority Center. The number is almost 100,000 in Florida and Texas, and 49,000 in Georgia.
According to the American Department of Agriculture in 2015-2019, about 11% of veterans aged 18 to 64 lived in households, which means that they had narrow or uncertain access to food, which is supervised by SNAP.
“We know that Snap is the best way to solve hunger. He receives benefits directly for people,” said Guinn. “There are other ways to get help, if they need them, through food banks or other charity organizations, but we do not think that these organizations will be able to gather needs.”
Greater burden of countries
In addition to changes in work rules, the fresh law reduces federal funds for SNAP by about USD 186 billion to 2034 – a reduction by about 20%, in accordance with the budget congress, an independent research arm of the congress. The federal government expects fresh work requirements to reduce SNAP expenditure by $ 69 billion, because people who do not comply are removed from the throw.
Snap was historically financed by the Federal Government, and you collect part of the program administration costs. Pursuant to the fresh law, the state will have to cover from 5% to 15% of SNAP costs, starting from tax year 2028, depending on how exactly they distribute benefits to people qualifying for the program.
It was a strategic program to break up SNAP and blame countries for it.
-Gina Plata-Nino, deputy director of SNAP at Food Research & Action Center
“It was a strategic plan to dismantle Snap and blame countries for that because they knew that they made it incredibly burdensome in running, action and improper,” said Gina Plata-Nino, deputy director of SNAP at Food Research & Action Center, a group of supporter of Ubdastwa and hunger.
“States will have to cut something because there is no surplus. There is no unlimited number of resources that states may have to balance the damage.”
You enable our work.
Guinn said New York expected him to see a fresh cost burden a year in the amount of at least $ 1.4 billion. According to the California Department of Social Services in California, California, fresh state costs can be up to $ 3.7 billion a year.
Kaitlynne Yancy, director of the membership programs in Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said that many disabled veterans would not be able to meet work requirements or find resources elsewhere. It is unclear whether states will be able to provide their own relief to people who are no longer exempt from work requirements or will be excluded from the program.
“This is a frustrating thing, especially for those who were ready to put everything on the line and sacrifice everything for this country, if they set up their country,” she said.
35 -year -old Yancy served in the American Navy in 2010–2014. She began to employ food vouchers and the Medicaid program, a public health insurance program for people with lower income, because she moved life challenges. They included a return to school to continue the bachelor’s title, becoming a lonely mother and diagnosis of leukemia for one of her children. She said that habitual trips to the hospital hindered her eternal work or attending school for 20 hours a week.
Guinn said that the fresh rules would also create significant administrative challenges; Even working recipients who work will have difficulty proveing to this.
“Maybe they work a month, have a job, and then their employer exceeds the hours in the next month,” said Guinn Stateline. “There are mechanisms to send documentation if necessary to demonstrate compliance with the program, but from an administrative point of view, we have no automated technology at the moment.”
Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be obtained at Satlani@stateline.org.
