Cuts to Social Safety Net Issue Explainer
5 Things To Know About The Cuts To Our Social Safety Net
Since 2025, the federal government, in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, has made devastating cuts to investments in communities and health that are critical to a thriving, safe society. Programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and housing assistance are designed to support people before crisis turns into catastrophe. Slashing these lifelines pushes families deeper into instability and increases the conditions that lead to harm.
Medicaid. The federal government cut $1 trillion from Medicaid, while ensuring the Top 1% received $1 trillion in tax cuts, including for their private jets. As a result, 15 million Americans will lose their healthcare, including 3 in 10 young adults.
These cuts will increase crime. In addition to providing people with essential health care, Medicaid is also a crime prevention strategy, and the largest provider of mental health and substance use treatment. When people lose healthcare, crime rates go up. One study of mass disenrollment from Medicaid found that it increased crime rates by 16.6%.
Food Assistance. In 2025, the federal government passed legislation cutting $187 million dollars in food assistance (SNAP/food stamps) through 2034. Beyond providing people with basic sustenance, SNAP has been shown to reduce crime. A 2019 study showed that each year of food stamp availability up to age 5 results in a 2.5% reduction in a criminal conviction before the age of 24.
Further attempted cuts. The Administration illegally withheld $12 billion from Head Start–which is proven to reduce crime–and attempted to cut $2 billion from vital mental health and substance use treatment before being forced to reverse course.
Supportive housing. Federal cuts to programs that address homelessness will likely result in an increase in people facing homelessness. The recent cuts to HUD could put 170,000 people at risk of experiencing homelessness.
Budget cuts and funding freezes target the very programs that prevent harm—healthcare, housing, food assistance, and community safety—while leaving punitive systems untouched or expanded. The result is less support, more instability, and greater risk for everyone.
For more information see https://www.wearesafety.info/