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After Trump’s SNAP Cuts, 300,000 in NYC Could Lose Food Benefits

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The president’s sweeping new law includes work requirements for more people and less coverage for some noncitizens. Republicans argue the cuts are needed to tackle waste and fraud.

A person in blue and black Nike shoes walks into a store past a sign that says “EBT Accepted Here.”

July 11, 2025, 3:00 a.m. ET

If it weren’t for the pocket change or occasional slice of pizza that strangers give Jessica Garcia as she begs beside the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, she said she would go hungry. Many days, she still does.

Social workers have encouraged her to apply for food stamps. It would be a more reliable way to feed herself. But this week she learned of a rising barrier: President Trump’s sweeping new law that slashes social safety net programs will require homeless people to prove they are volunteering, working or trying to find a job to receive food benefits.

“How is that possible if you are homeless, have nothing to wear, nowhere to shower, have no paperwork on us?” Ms. Garcia, 40, said. “How is that supposed to happen?”

About three million New Yorkers rely on food stamps, and around 10 percent could lose them because of changes in the new law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, officials say. Over the next decade, it is expected to cause 22.3 million families nationwide to lose all or some of their benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, according to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy research group. The law also includes about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, many for the wealthy.

“It’s just a given that a civilized society would want to take care of people who are struggling to put food on their table,” Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said in an interview. “To see that all unwound for the sole purpose of ensuring there was more money to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires is beyond unconscionable — it’s cruel.”

New York State and city administrators say they are still trying to understand the full implications of the law for SNAP. Preliminary data from the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which oversees the program, shows that some 400,000 New Yorkers may no longer be exempt from work requirements; 300,000 of them might lose benefits entirely. The fallout is expected to be wide-ranging, experts said, affecting businesses from urban bodegas to rural farm stands that rely on customers who use SNAP.