Six days after turning 21 and leaving foster care in Los Angeles, Nancy Olivares was living in a hotel room. She had no job and, as yet, no more stable housing prospects.
But there was one source of economic support: $300 in monthly food stamps. She used her CalFresh EBT card to buy hot meals, and stock the room’s small fridge with Lunchables, yogurt and fruit.
“I was stressed out all the time, trying to make that food last until the end of the month,” said Olivares, now 27.
Beginning in June, access to those benefits will become more difficult for former foster youth and other childless adults of working age. New reporting rules require that every year they submit paperwork proving they are working, volunteering or training for employment for at least 80 hours a month.
Without that certification, only three months of food stamps will be available.
The change followed passage of the sweeping tax-and-spending cuts bill H.R. 1, signed last year by President Donald Trump. The federal bill cut Medicaid and federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — food stamp benefits that young people leaving foster care at 18 or 21 have long relied on as they face precarious futures. Previously, young people raised in government custody automatically received a waiver until age 25, and did not have to satisfy more stringent work requirements for “able-bodied adults without dependents,” also known as ABAWD rules.
Olivares said the change forces foster youth to make impossible choices with their limited resources.
“This is going to hit foster youth hard,” she said. “A lot are going to end up homeless.”
The California Legislature may soon fill in some gaps for recipients of CalFresh, the state’s version of the federally funded SNAP program.
“This is not a policy debate. This is reckless behavior by the federal government, and I will consider it my life’s work to defend against anyone who is being attacked for being poor.”
—Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens, author of A.B. 2765
Sunnyvale Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens’ Assembly Bill 2765 seeks protection from the new federal rules for current and former foster youth. It also requires the state’s Department of Social Services to instruct counties on how some foster youth can be automatically deemed exempt from work requirements. If passed by both houses and signed by the governor, it would take effect three months after approval, within this calendar year.
“The Legislature recognizes the significant and long-term harm that can be caused by hunger experienced by children and young adults, especially those who experienced other traumas as a child, such as those known to have been experienced by foster youth,” it reads.
Ahrens’ bill language describes H.R.1. as a “cruel new federal policy,” and calls on the state to address its consequences.
“Many of us will not be able to meet these requirements, not because we aren’t trying, but because the system we’re coming out of has not given us the right stability or resources to do so,” former foster youth Karina Ortiz said at an Assembly Human Services hearing last month. “Hunger doesn’t have a time limit — neither should food assistance.”
CalFresh provides monthly food benefits to 5.5 million residents through an EBT card that can be used to purchase eligible food such as fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products at grocery stores and farmers’ markets. Analysis from the state’s Legislative Analyst Office calls it the state’s largest poverty-reduction program. In 2023, it protected 856,000 Californians from hunger, including 312,000 children.
Under H.R.1, there are only a few ways individuals can be exempted from the work requirement rules. They include pregnancy, caring for a dependent child under age 14 and being declared unfit for work.
In December, the Department of Social Services estimated that roughly 500,000 CalFresh recipients would not be able to meet the new 20-hour-per-week work standard, placing them at risk of losing food assistance.
“Many of us will not be able to meet these requirements, not because we aren’t trying, but because the system we’re coming out of has not given us the right stability or resources to do so. Hunger doesn’t have a time limit — neither should food assistance.”
—Former Foster Youth Karina Ortiz
Some states have already begun implementing the new rule changes. In California, the new federal work requirements take effect on June 1.
Foster youth are particularly at risk.
Approximately 2,600 young people age out of California’s foster care system each year at age 21. Nearly a third experience hunger, according to the yearslong study
Even when they’re eligible for food stamps, these young adults — who don’t always have a reliable phone number or address — have difficulty enrolling, a new report from the Urban Institute found. The task of completing complicated paperwork and burdensome rules can prevent many foster youth from even applying, researchers find.
Housing insecurity, the lingering impacts of trauma and limited social support contribute to low application and enrollment rates among those eligible, according to the Center for the Study of Social Policy.
The CalFresh bill attempts to remedy the new hurdles that have emerged. It is sponsored by the California State Council of Service Employees International Union and End Child Poverty California. The legislation passed out of the Assembly Human Services Committee on April 23 and heads to appropriations Wednesday.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates automation costs of at least $3.8 million a year, an expense that may work against the bill’s passage in a state facing a multibillion-dollar shortfall.
There is also political opposition to its passage.
At the Assembly committee hearing last month, Republican Assemblymember David Tangipa of Fresno said work requirements for former foster youth were reasonable, and that food stamps can create unhelpful dependency on government programs.
“We’ve got to figure out,” Tangipa said, “something that pulls people out of abject poverty and that doesn’t perpetuate poverty.”
But Ahrens disagreed.
“This is not a policy debate,” he said. “This is reckless behavior by the federal government, and I will consider it my life’s work to defend against anyone who is being attacked for being poor.”
Last month, the California Department of Finance approved $20 million to help counties prepare for the new rules ahead of the June 1 deadline. Legislators are also calling for an additional $103 million in the forthcoming state budget to cover 400 additional county welfare workers who will be needed to screen and certify CalFresh recipients more often.
Meanwhile, last month, state officials released a new CalFresh policy manual, with specific language about how former foster youth can qualify.
Past involvement with the child welfare or the juvenile justice systems are listed as “indicators of obvious unfitness to work,” along with other factors such as chronic homelessness and drug abuse. Physical or mental inability to work also qualifies for an exemption, but documents must be submitted to CalFresh eligibility workers as proof, such as receipt of disability benefits.
Jenny Pokempner, policy director at the San Francisco-based Youth Law Center, said awareness of how to qualify for CalFresh benefits is critical, and advocates like her are spreading the word before in-person interviews. That will prepare them for the in-person interviews necessary to receive food stamps that begin next month.
“We want to make sure youth understand these new rules, so they walk into their screening or recertification as prepared as possible,” Pokempner said.
