New Yorkers who rely on city benefits for food assistance and cash to help pay their bills are likely to lose thousands of dollars in support each year under proposed steep cuts to federal aid, city officials warn.
New York City would receive roughly $870 million less to fund its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program annually if potential federal budget cuts are approved on Capitol Hill. Such a cut would translate to a loss of about $1,500 in SNAP benefits for a family of three per year, and take money out of 1.8 million New Yorkers’ pockets that would have supported the city’s economy, said Molly Wasow Park, commissioner of the Department of Social Services, during a City Council hearing Monday. The cuts would also likely slash $290 million in funding for cash assistance that nearly 600,000 New Yorkers receive who are homeless or at risk of losing their housing.
There are no easy solutions for the city or state to budget their way out of the devastating impact on city services such federal budget cuts would likely have on the boroughs, said Park.
“It’s not just the impact on clients, right? Every dollar of SNAP spent in New York City generates $1.54 of economic activity,” said Park. “I don’t see a realistic pathway for the city or even the city and state to backfill what’s potentially lost from the federal government. It’s really concerning.”
Park said the agency is developing a contingency plan but declined to offer specifics. City budget director Jacques Jiha also said earlier this month that the agency is developing contingency plans in the event that threatened funding cuts become a reality.
Under the Adams administration’s $115 billion preliminary budget for the 2026 Fiscal Year, the social service department has a budget of $11.47 billion — roughly $342.5 million less than the budget adopted for the previous fiscal year. The city’s latest budget proposal, released days before President Trump took office, does not account for the potential federal cuts. The agencies under the social service department’s purview — the Human Resources Administration and the Department of Homeless Services — receive billions of dollars in federal aid annually that’s under threat.
Nearly $2 billion of HRA’s budget (about 14%) and $628 million of DHS’s budget (some 15%) was made up of federal funding last fiscal year, city budget documents show. Federal funds make up a total of $9.7 billion of the city’s $116 billion budget for the current fiscal year that ends in June, and $7.4 billion of next year’s spending plan, which would fund shelters and low-income housing, public schools and the CUNY system, and many other programs.
Bronx City Council member Diana Ayala, chair of the Council’s general welfare committee, said the city must double down on its spending for social service programs, particularly with the looming threat of federal aid cuts.
“It does not adequately support the essential programs,” said Ayala. “We need to think more deeply about where we can most effectively allocate our limited resources, especially during these uniquely challenging times.”
