Loceny Kamara’s story is one that’s becoming all too common for veterans in New York and across the country. After serving a year in the U.S. Navy, Kamara was discharged in 2023 due to severe anxiety, nightmares, and a battle with alcoholism. He managed to get sober while living with family in the Bronx, but after losing his job as a security guard in December, he was forced out of his home. Now, at 23, Kamara lives at a veterans homeless shelter in Long Island City, Queens, relying on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—better known as food stamps—and odd jobs to survive. "I’m pissed. I mean, I cannot get a job. Nowhere to live," Kamara told Stateline, after learning that yet another job interview had not panned out. "I’ve been out of work for eight months. It’s hard to get a job right now for everybody."
Kamara is just one of nearly 1.2 million veterans nationwide who depend on SNAP to help fill their grocery carts. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, that’s about 8% of the country’s 16.2 million veterans. But that safety net is about to get a lot thinner for many. A sweeping domestic policy measure, signed by President Donald Trump on July 4, will eliminate the exemption that has long protected veterans from SNAP’s strict work requirements. Beginning in 2026, able-bodied veterans between 18 and 54 without children will have to prove they’re working, volunteering, in job training, or at least looking for work for 80 hours a month to keep receiving food stamps for more than three months—unless they qualify for another exemption, such as a documented disability.
Supporters of the new law, including Republicans in Congress and conservative policy architects, argue these changes are necessary to prevent abuse of the system. Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told Stateline, "Most of the people that are in this category live in households with other people that have incomes, and so there really isn’t a chronic food shortage here. We have tens of thousands of free food banks that people can go to. So it’s just a requirement to nudge these people in the proper direction, and it should no longer go unenforced."
But critics, including veteran advocates and state officials, say this view ignores the unique challenges veterans face. Many struggle with physical and mental health conditions acquired during service—traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, and more—that can make steady work difficult. Veterans also tend to have less formal education, though they often possess specialized military skills that don’t always translate to civilian jobs.
Darryl Chavis, a 62-year-old Army veteran, knows these struggles firsthand. After serving as a watercraft operator, he found himself "severely depressed." Chavis, who was diagnosed with PTSD, has had trouble holding jobs and recently moved back to New York from Virginia after a relationship ended. Now, he too lives at the Long Island City shelter. "What I’m trying to do is get settled in to, you know, stabilize into an apartment. I have the credentials to get a job. So it’s not like I’m not gonna look for a job. I have to work. I’m in transition, and the obstacles don’t make it easy," he said.
The new rules extend beyond veterans. Able-bodied adults aged 55 to 64 without dependents, and parents with children over 14, will also face work requirements. Some groups, including asylum-seekers and refugees, are now excluded from SNAP altogether. Barbara Guinn, commissioner of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, estimates that around 300,000 New Yorkers could lose SNAP benefits because of the new rules—including about 22,000 veterans, homeless people, or those aging out of foster care. As of March 2025, nearly 3 million New Yorkers relied on SNAP.
The numbers are similarly stark in other states. California has around 115,000 veterans who receive SNAP, Florida and Texas nearly 100,000 each, and Georgia about 49,000. Between 2015 and 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that 11% of veterans aged 18 to 64 lived in food-insecure households—meaning they didn’t always know where their next meal was coming from.
Guinn emphasized the program’s importance: "We know that SNAP is the best way to help address hunger. It gets benefits directly to individuals. There are other ways that people can get assistance if they need it, through food banks or other charitable organizations, but we do not think that those organizations will have the capacity to pick up the needs."
Adding to the pressure, the new law slashes federal SNAP funding by about $186 billion through 2034—a 20% cut, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The government expects to save $69 billion as people who can’t meet the new requirements are dropped from the rolls. For the first time, states will have to shoulder 5% to 15% of SNAP costs starting in fiscal year 2028, depending on how accurately they distribute benefits. New York expects to face at least $1.4 billion in new annual costs, while California could see up to $3.7 billion more each year.
"This has been a strategic agenda to dismantle SNAP and to blame states for doing so, because they knew they are making it so incredibly burdensome to run and operate and unaffordable," said Gina Plata-Nino, SNAP deputy director at the Food Research & Action Center. "States are going to have to cut something, because there’s no surplus. There are no unlimited resources that states may have in order to be able to offset the harm."
For many veterans, especially those with disabilities, the new requirements may be impossible to meet. Kaitlynne Yancy, director of membership programs at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said, "It is a frustrating thing to see, especially for those that have been willing to put everything on the line and sacrifice everything for this country if their country called them to do so." Yancy, a Navy veteran herself, described the challenges of balancing work, education, and caring for a child with leukemia, all while relying on SNAP and Medicaid.
The administrative headaches are likely to mount as well. Guinn pointed out that even veterans who are working may struggle to prove it. "Maybe they’re working one month, they have a job, and then their employer cuts their hours the next month. There are mechanisms for people to upload documentation as needed to demonstrate compliance with the program, but from an administrative standpoint, right now, we don’t have any super-high-tech automated way of doing this."
Amid these looming changes, there is one area where veterans have seen improvement: the processing of disability benefits claims. According to The Daily Signal, the Department of Veterans Affairs processed 2,517,519 disability benefits compensation and pension ratings claims in fiscal year 2024. By August 8, 2025, the VA had already set a new record, processing 2,524,115 claims nearly two months before the fiscal year’s end. Since President Trump’s inauguration, the backlog of veterans waiting for benefits has dropped by more than 37%, reversing a 24% increase under the previous administration. In July 2025 alone, the VA completed over 300,000 ratings claims—a monthly record. The department is processing claims 17.8% faster than in 2024, despite a 10% rise in new claims.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins highlighted ongoing reforms, stating, "Under President Trump, VA is making major improvements to better serve veterans, and this announcement underscores that fact. We look forward to implementing more reforms to increase customer service and convenience for those we are charged with serving."
For veterans like Kamara and Chavis, however, the future remains uncertain. As the safety net shrinks and the cost burden on states grows, the struggle to secure basic needs like food and shelter is likely to intensify for many who have already given so much in service to their country.