Good morning. It’s Friday. Today we’ll look at new data from the City’s Department of Social Services and recent cuts to federal food benefits.
Over 22,000 New Yorkers lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits last month as tighter work requirements for able-bodied adults began. The cutoffs stem from President Trump’s domestic policy law enacted last year, which expanded monthly work requirements and tightened exemptions. Newly released data from the New York City Department of Social Services shows that approximately 22,200 food stamp cases were closed in June after the three-month grace period ended. The grace period started when the new rules went into effect in March. The new federal rules require able-bodied adults without dependents to work at least 80 hours monthly. The bill also stripped the automatic work requirement exceptions for homeless people or those formerly in foster care. “It amounts to more than $5 million in lost food assistance each month and has a significant impact on the individuals affected — particularly young adults, who are disproportionately impacted by the expanded federal work requirements,” Erin Dalton, the city’s social services commissioner, said in an emailed statement. While the dropped cases represent only 1.3 percent of New York City’s 1.7 million SNAP recipients, the data shows the cuts hit young people and men the hardest. Of the 22,000 people who lost benefits, 70 percent are single-person households, according to the department. About 64 percent were between 18 and 35 years old. About 44 percent of those cut off are men. Geographically, the department said 42 percent of those who lost benefits in June live in Brooklyn, and 26 percent live in the Bronx. “When you see numbers not just in New York City but across the country at the amounts that we’re seeing, it’s got to be the direct impact of the policies that have been put in place, which is again unnecessary paperwork hurdles intended to make it harder for people to keep their benefits,” Dalton said in an interview Thursday. Early this year, the city started a campaign that identified around 343,000 New Yorkers who were at risk of losing SNAP benefits because of the new federal requirements, the Department of Social Services said in an email. The agency said it worked with area hospitals and the City University of New York to shape a plan to address those at risk, including door knocking, phone banking and community-based outreach. “Access to food assistance should not depend on a person’s ability to navigate unnecessary administrative barriers,” Dalton said. “By combining data-driven strategies with strong community partnerships, we have helped more than 220,000 New Yorkers secure SNAP exemptions.” Advocates like Krista Hesdorfer, director of public affairs at Hunger Solutions New York, warn that cumulative cuts, paired with administrative confusion and the summer nutrition gap created when children aren’t getting free meals at school, are compounding pressure on working parents. “All of those changes to SNAP have made it so much harder for people to just put food on the table,” Hesdorfer said. While it will take time to see the full impact of the cuts in data, Stephen Grimaldi, the executive director of New York Common Pantry, said the city’s emergency food network is witnessing the strain firsthand. “When people get kicked off the benefits, not only is there a stressor that causes their families mental health stress, and other things, but even when those benefits are restored, there’s always this looking over your shoulder and wondering where the next meal is coming from,” Grimaldi said. For residents like Mirian Romero, 42, of East Harlem, the stress Grimaldi described is a reality. Sitting in the waiting area at Common Pantry with three of her children on Wednesday, Romero explained that she receives about $750 a month in SNAP for her nine-person household after earlier benefit reductions in 2025. Disabilities leave her unable to work, making local pantries an essential bridge to get through the month. “I’m very resourceful,” Romero said. “Like the people I was born from, they know how to do things, and I know how to do these things. And even me, I felt like crying all the time. I still do sometimes, because it’s just very difficult. I don’t think life should be this hard for anybody.” WEATHER Expect plenty of sunshine and a high near 84. Tonight, look for partly cloudy skies and temperatures around 66. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Aug. 15 (Feast of the Assumption). QUOTE OF THE DAY “It’s an unusual project and I am glad they took the plunge. It’s really something that gives new life to buildings.” — Alexandros Washburn, an architect and the city’s former chief urban designer, in support of the glass addition to 50 Hudson Street, a historic building in TriBeCa that was long an anomaly among its taller neighbors. The latest Metro news
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Dear Diary: I was being interviewed for the British publication The Spectator. We settled into a communal table in the lobby of the Marlton Hotel on Eighth Street because my apartment was undergoing some renovation. My interlocutor, Anne Margaret Daniel, is a literary scholar who was extremely knowledgeable about my work and about American literature in general, and the conversation was lively. I couldn’t help noticing that a gentleman at the table seemed to be paying attention, and it occurred to me that we might be annoying him. But he didn’t say anything until we were wrapping up. At that point, he introduced himself and said it was an honor to meet me, which made me only slightly uncomfortable, and that he was a writer himself. Ms. Daniel and I had finished the interview by talking about my experiences in Hollywood. The gentleman who had just introduced himself said that his family had been involved in the early days of motion pictures and that he was a descendant of an early movie star named Blanche Walsh. He said he was planning to name a projected humanistic studies center for her and hoped the New School would finance it to the tune of $100 million. Ms. Daniel, who teaches at the New School, raised her eyebrows when she heard this. “I suspect that before the New School would give $100 million for the humanities these days,” she said, “the whole campus would collapse and sink into the Greenwich Village mud like the House of Usher into the tarn.” Nonetheless, we wished him success in his venture before exiting onto the chilly street. — Jay McInerney Mr. McInerney is a writer. His most recent book is “See You on the Other Side.” Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
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