New work rules could refuse thousands of veterans food brands

Darryl Chavis, 62, served as a watercraft operator in the US Army for two years. He stands in front of the Borden Avenue Veterans Residence, a tiny -term residential facility in the Long Island City district in Queens, ny, where he lives. Chavis is dependent on the supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and is concerned about modern work requirements for the program, generally referred to as food brands. (Shalina Chatlani | Steline)

New York – After a year in the US Marine, Loaly Kamara said that he was released in 2023, because while he developed problems with mental health, including severe fear and nightmares, and fell into alcoholism.

The 23 -year -old Kamara went to rehab and managed to get sober for some time while he lived with the family in the Bronx, he said. But after losing his job as a security guard in December, Kamara was thrown out of his house. Now he lives in a homeless home of veterans in Long Island City, a quarter in Queens, New York.

Every month, almost 42 million people receive Snap advantages to supplement their food budgets. Spap recipients who are between 18 and 54 and have no children were always necessary to work. However, veterans were freed from these rules – but that will change.

The huge domestic policy, which President Donald Trump signed on July 4, eliminates this liberation. From 2026, the veterans must prove that they work, volunteer work, participation in vocational training or are looking for at least 80 hours a month to last for three months, unless they qualify for further liberation, e.g. B. a certain disability.

Republicans in the congress and conservatives who have helped to formulate the law say that they are necessary to prevent people who could work to abuse the system. However, critics say that the change does not take into account the obstacles with which many veterans are confronted, and that the modern work rules become thousands of veterans hungry.

“I’m angry. I mean, I can’t get a job. Nowhere to live,” said Kamara. When he spoke, Kamara pointed to his collar shirt and noticed that he had just dressed up for an interview for a job as a security guard. He learned that morning that he hadn’t got the job.

“I’ve been unemployed for eight months,” Kamara told Stateline. “It is difficult to get a job for everyone at the moment.”

Veterans hang from snap

According to the center for household and political priorities, a left -wing research group, around 1.2 million veterans with lower incomes or about 8% of the total veteran population of 16.2 million are dependent on themselves and their families for themselves and their families.

An analysis of the group showed that veterans tend to have lower employment rates, since they have more health diseases such as traumatic brain injuries that make it tough for them. They also tend to have less formal education, although many of their time in the military have special skills.

For most SNAP recipients there was a work request Since 1996. But Robert Rector, a high -ranking Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said the rules “never really enforced”. Rector argued that the powerful people who were excluded from the work requirements, such as veterans and homeless people, create 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, and so there is really no chronic lack of food here,” said Rector in an interview. “We have tens of thousands of free food banks to which people can go. So it is only a prerequisite to push these people in the right direction, and it should no longer be reinforced.”

Darryl Chavis, 62, said that the view ignores the difficulties with which many veterans are confronted. When Chavis left the US Army after two years of service at the age of 21, he was “very depressed”.

“Nobody came to help me,” said Chavis, who served as a watercraft operator, who was responsible for the operation and maintenance of tugs, load barges and other landing messengers.

At Chavis, he was diagnosed with a post -traumatic stress disorder, which made it tough for him to keep a job. He just moved back from Virginia to New York after leaving a relationship. He has been in housing in Long Island City since January.

“I try to stabilize myself into an apartment.

The modern SNAP work rules apply to all capable adults between 55 and 64 who have no relatives, and parents with children over 14 years. Some groups, such as asylum seekers and refugees, are no longer entitled to the program.

Barbara Guinn, Commissioner of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, estimates that around 300,000 New Yorkers could lose the snapping pane due to work requirements. Of these, around 22,000 veterans, homeless or aging from care are, she said. From March 2025, almost 3 million New Yorkers relied on Snap.

Veterans in other countries are in a similar situation. In California, an estimated 115,000 veterans receive SNAP services according to a study by the Center for Household and Political Priorities. The number is almost 100,000 in Florida and Texas and 49,000 in Georgia.

Between 2015 and 2019, around 11% of the veterans between the ages of 18 and 64 lived in food in food, which, according to the US Ministry of Agriculture, had constrained or uncertain access to food.

“We know that Snap is the best way to fix hunger. It is benefited directly for individuals,” said Guinn. “There are other ways of getting help if they need them through food banks or other non -profit organizations, but we do not believe that these organizations have the ability to meet the needs.”

A greater burden on states

In addition to the changes to the work rule, the modern law reduces federal financing for SNAP by around 186 billion US dollars by 2034 – a reduction of around 20%, according to the Congress budget, an independent research low in the congress. The Federal Government expects the modern work requirements to reduce SNAP expenditure by 69 billion US dollars because people who do not fulfill fall out of the roles.

SNAP has been financed by the Federal Government in the past, with states using part of the costs of managing the program. According to the modern law, the states have to cover between 5% and 15% of the SNAP costs from the 2028 financial year, depending on how exactly they distribute services to people who are entitled to the program.

“This was a strategic agenda to reduce Snape and accuse states because they knew that they would make it so incredibly stressful to run and work and be unaffordable,” said Gina Plata-Nino, deputy director of the Food Research & Action Center, a poverty and a hunger add vocacy group.

“States have to cut something because there is no excess. There are no unlimited resources that the states may have to compensate for the damage.”

Guinn said New York expects a modern cost burden of at least 1.4 billion US dollars a year. According to the California Ministry for Social Services in California, California could take a total of up to 3.7 billion US dollars per year in total over total total costs.

Kaitlynne Yancy, director of membership programs at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said that many veterans with disabilities will not meet the work requirements or find resources elsewhere. And it is unclear whether states who are no longer exempt from work requirements or are excluded from the program can make their own relief.

“It is a frustrating thing to see, especially for those who were willing to risk everything and sacrifice everything for this country if her country called it,” she said.

The 35 -year -old Yancy served in the US Navy from 2010 to 2014. It began to operate food brands and the Medicaid program, the public health insurance program for people with lower incomes, than she navigated the challenges of life. This included back to school to make their bachelor’s degree, to become a single mother, and a leukemia diagnosis for one of her children. Frequent trips to the hospital made it tough for her to work steadily or to attend school for 20 hours a week, she said.

Guinn said that the modern rules will also create significant administrative challenges. Even snap receivers who work will have difficulty proving this.

“Maybe you work for a month, you have a job and then your employer shortens your hours the next month,” Guinn told Stateline. “There are mechanisms for people who upload documentation as required to demonstrate compliance with the program, but from an administrative point of view we do not have an automated super-high-tech type at the moment.”

Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be reached schatlani@stateline.org.