New rules for CalFresh food program mean thousands in San Diego losing benefits

This article first appeared in inewsource Sign up for their newsletters here Starting Nov people using the food assistance activity CalFresh known as SNAP nationally will have three months to find work before they are kicked off the project The new work requirements are part of President Donald Trump s One Big Beautiful Bill Act A memo published Oct by the U S Department of Agriculture notified states of the new earlier deadline to implement the changes California had expected regulations to take effect in January because it had an existing waiver exempting all able-bodied adults without dependents from the work requirements The state got the waiver by showing it didn t have enough jobs USDA abruptly canceled California s waiver along with six other states and territories with full waivers and states with partial waivers San Diego County representatives estimate that people in the region will be subject to the new work requirements Before the new rule adults without disabilities between the ages of and could receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Initiative benefits for three months in a three-year period without showing they are gainfully employed for at least hours per month Certain government-approved volunteer work can also qualify but caregiving to children or older adults does not The new exemption now applies only to adults starting at age and for parents with children younger than It also removes exemptions put in place during the Biden administration for veterans people experiencing homelessness and former foster youth under age This new guidance effectively ends food assistance for thousands of San Diegans overnight mentioned Alondra Alvarado president and CEO of the San Diego Hunger Coalition We re already hearing confusion and fear from society partners and we expect food banks and meal programs to be overwhelmed as people lose benefits far sooner than expected This strategy punishes people for being poor not for failing to work Long-term impacts to state county budgets The unexpected news could have staggering consequences for state and county budgets Before the One Big Beautiful Bill Act the federal regime paid for all of the food distributed through SNAP Starting in states will be responsible for part of that cost The amount will depend on the percentage of campaign benefits over- or underpaid to recipients this and next year The new USDA memo makes California responsible for correctly paying out benefits starting Nov and any mistakes will be penalized by making states pay an increased share of the cost of SNAP benefits California was already in the top bracket for error penalties which will cost the state about billion if they are unable to reduce it Now the state has a shorter timeline to set up a way to correctly administer the effort under the new rules and get the penalty cost down Counties are also bracing for the challenge of in fact administering the undertaking which they have to pay for themselves San Diego County estimates it requirements to hire staff just to administer CalFresh H R s changes to CalFresh will create an administrative burden divert guidance from other programs and largest part importantly leave families hungry while worsening medical outcomes California Association of Counties CEO Graham Knaus disclosed Unless the state backfills federal cuts or relieves us of state mandates we ll be forced to slash core local services from community safety to parks The state s latest CalFresh funding is an essential start The association requested about million from the state to address the administrative workload and got about half in a September budget package A San Diego County spokesperson noted all SNAP recipients will be notified of benefit cancellations once the state issues guidance and referred additional questions to the California Department of Social Services The state agency stated in a report they were assessing fresh federal changes and remain committed to ensuring Californians have access to food advocacy inewsource is a community-focused nonprofit nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and accountability journalism The news outlet is a Pu litzer Prize finalist