SNAP Cuts Put Housing Stability At Risk

On July 4, President Donald Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a sweeping tax and spending package that makes $1.2 trillion in cuts to social programs over the next decade. While the White House touts the measure as a step toward economic growth, experts warn that slashing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid will have the opposite effect in many states, including Massachusetts.

What’s Changing

Over the next ten years, SNAP funding will shrink by about $186 billion, while Medicaid faces deep eligibility and funding cuts. Key changes include:

• Expanded work requirements for SNAP: Able-bodied adults ages 18–64 (without dependents) must work at least 80 hours per month to maintain benefits. Veterans, unhoused people, and youth aging out of foster care will lose prior exemptions.

• State cost-sharing for SNAP benefits: For the first time, states will have to cover up to 15% of benefit costs if their payment error rate is high, plus a 25-point increase in administrative cost responsibility (from 50% to 75%).

• Medicaid eligibility cuts: Stricter work requirements, reduced federal funding, and tighter income thresholds will push millions off coverage.

  
  

In Massachusetts, where housing and healthcare costs are already among the highest in the nation, these shifts will reverberate far beyond the grocery store or doctor’s office.

Economic Ripple Effects

SNAP and Medicaid aren't just safety nets. Federal dollars flow to grocery stores, hospitals, and local vendors, sustaining jobs and generating tax revenue. In rural areas, Medicaid keeps hospitals open. In cities like Malden, SNAP ensures steady demand for food retailers, from supermarkets to corner stores.

Leighton Ku, director of the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University, estimates earlier versions of the bill would have cost 1.2 million jobs nationwide. The final version is expected to be as damaging, or worse.

Food banks, mutual aid networks, and charitable clinics cannot absorb the scale of need these cuts will generate. The Greater Boston Food Bank already warns it cannot replace the value of lost SNAP benefits, which can be hundreds of dollars per household each month.

For organizations providing Housing First and wraparound services, the challenge will intensify. Instead of focusing on long-term stability, case managers may need to scramble for emergency food and health resources, slowing or derailing rehousing efforts.

For Massachusetts, which already faces tight budgets and a statutory requirement to balance them, the new cost-sharing provisions mean hard choices: either raise taxes, cut other programs, or reduce benefits. Housing programs are a likely target for cuts if SNAP and Medicaid obligations crowd out other spending.

Effects on Housing

The connection is direct. Without SNAP, many low-income households will be forced to redirect limited cash toward food, leaving rent unpaid. When Medicaid coverage is lost, medical bills can pile up, pushing families into debt and eviction. For people already on the edge: seniors on fixed incomes, working parents with low wages, unhoused individuals trying to stabilize, the cuts make it harder to maintain or secure housing.

In Malden, where the housing wage now exceeds $50 per hour for a modest two-bedroom apartment, even a small loss in food benefits could tip a household into eviction proceedings. The result: more demand for already-overburdened shelters, transitional housing programs, and outreach services.

Local Impacts:

SNAP:

• Total reduction: ~$2.1 billion in benefits over the decade (~$30M/yr to Malden alone)

• Affected households: ~419k (~16% of Malden households)

• Monthly Benefit Loss: ~$460 per Malden household

• 48% of SNAP households in MA include kids

• 22% of SNAP households include seniors

• 25% of SNAP households include a disabled adult

Medicaid:

• Federal cuts over the next decade: ~$15 billion

• Potential closure of hospitals in Western Mass and some Cape communities

• ~19,000 Malden residents (29% of Malden residents) could lose benefits

So What Do We Do Now?

1. Fully fund SNAP and Medicaid shortfalls without cutting housing or public health programs.

2. Integrate food and health advocacy into housing policy, recognizing and formalizing the wraparound care model into our policy models.

3. Invest in Housing First and wraparound care, ensuring the loss of federal benefits does not collapse local rehousing pipelines.

4. Mobilize locally: Cities like Malden can pass resolutions opposing harmful cuts, direct ARPA (or other local funds) to gap-fill, and partner with nonprofits to safeguard vulnerable residents.

   
   

The stakes are high. Cuts to SNAP and Medicaid are policy choices that will drive hunger, health crises, and housing loss unless state and local leaders act decisively. In Massachusetts, where the cost of living leaves no margin for error, the fallout is likely to be swift and severe.