September 16, 2022

Families with low incomes face difficult challenges in affording basics, from food and medicine to child care and housing. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) accounts for some of the other expenses a household has when determining how much to provide in food benefits. However, undercutting the positive impact of the SNAP shelter deduction is an arbitrary “cap” on the excess shelter costs that most SNAP families with children are allowed to claim. Removing the shelter cap and easing the food and rent squeeze is long overdue.

The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) has created a fact sheet with more information about the shelter cap policy, the harm it causes SNAP households, and policy solutions to lift the cap.

Understanding the SNAP Shelter Deduction

The SNAP shelter deduction allows a household to deduct housing expenses — like monthly rent, repair costs, and standard utility allowances — that exceed half of its net income when calculating SNAP benefits. According to the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, after Section 8 and public housing, the SNAP shelter deduction is “the biggest source of federal assistance to low-income households based on their housing needs.”[1] This deduction eases the cost of living for many SNAP households.

Unless a SNAP household has a member who is  60 or older or has a disability, the household faces an arbitrary cap on the amount of costs it can claim. In fiscal year 2023, the “shelter cap” is $624.

Food and Housing Squeeze

Working age renter households spend a significant amount of their income on rent, [2] utilities, and other basic needs.

Furthermore, rent-burdened households spend a significantly high percentage of their income on rent alone.[3]  This is especially the case for rent-burdened households of color.[4]

While 47.5 percent of all Americans are rent-burdened, [5] Black and Latino/Hispanic households face disproportionately higher rates of rent burden than white households. In 2019, 54 percent of Black households and 52 percent  of Hispanic households were considered moderately or severely rent-burdened as compared to 42 percent  of white and Asian households. [6]

How the SNAP Shelter Deduction Cap Exacerbates the Squeeze Between Food and Shelter

The cap on the SNAP shelter deduction undercuts the adequacy of monthly SNAP food aid that many SNAP households with children receive and limits the extent to which SNAP helps them pay for both food and stable shelter.

  • Without temporary pandemic SNAP boosts, the average SNAP benefit is only $5.40 per person per day. [7] The shelter cap is a significant contributor to the shortfall between what households need for food and what they can afford for the month.
  • In 2019, 2,638,000 — 14 percent of SNAP households in the U.S. — hit the shelter cap and were shortchanged. [8]
  • In Vermont (27.3 percent) and California (25.9 percent), the percentage of households who hit the cap was nearly double the national rate. [9]

Removing the Cap on the SNAP Shelter Deduction Matters Now More Than Ever

This past June, a majority of Americans polled expressed a growing worry about affording a place to live in the future: “Sixty-one percent of respondents said that they sometimes do not have enough money for the “basics,” such as food and housing, or they live payday to payday and have “just enough money to get by.”[10]

In July, many SNAP households reported not being able to pay rent on time; this was disproportionately the case for SNAP households of color.[11]

Particularly given the impact of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and disruptions to energy supplies, the 2022–2023 winter season is expected to increase the difficulties many American households have in paying for their energy and other basic needs.[12]

In 2021, the American Recovery Plan Act added $4.5 billion to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, but “help on that scale appears unlikely to be repeated.”[13]

Moreover, when the pandemic Public Health Emergency Declaration ends, about 60 percent of SNAP households will have benefits lower than the maximum allotment. Leveraging the full value of their SNAP deductions will matter even more.[14]  Uncapping the SNAP shelter deduction can contribute to a modest mitigation of the “hunger cliff” looming ahead for many of them.[15]

Take Action and Learn More

The Closing the Meal Gap Act (H.R. 4077/S. 2192), introduced by Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC-12) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), would, among other things, remove the cap on the SNAP shelter deduction. It would allow households to deduct their full excess shelter costs when determining net income for SNAP. Removing the cap on the SNAP shelter deduction can provide more adequate benefits. It will promote food security, well-being, and health and racial equity.

Take action by asking your members of Congress to sponsor and pass the Closing the Meal Gap Act.

Learn more from FRAC’s fact sheet about the shelter cap policy, the harm it causes SNAP households, and policy solutions to lift the cap.

[1] Baker, P. and Negus, V. (2020, January). “What is the shelter deduction and how is it calculated?” Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. https://www.masslegalhelp.org/income-benefits/food-stamps/advocacy-guide/part3/q85-shelter-deduction.

[2] See, for example: Whitney Airgood, Alexander Hermann & Sophie Wedeen. (2022). “The Rent Eats First”: Rental Housing Unaffordability in the United States, Housing Policy Debate. DOI:10.1080/10511482.2021.2020866.

[3] Airgood-Obrycki, W. (2022, March 22). MILLIONS OF RENTERS FALL SHORT OF A COMFORTABLE STANDARD OF LIVING. Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/millions-renters-fall-short-comfortable-standard-living.

[4] Wedeen, S. (2021, January 11). Black and Hispanic Renters Face Greatest Threat of Eviction In Pandemic. Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/black-and-hispanic-renters-face-greatest-threat-eviction-pandemic.

[5] Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. (2016). Renter Cost Burdens By Race and Ethnicity. https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/ARH_2017_cost_burdens_by_race.

[6] Wedeen, S. (2021, January 11). Black and Hispanic Renters Face Greatest Threat of Eviction In Pandemic. Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/black-and-hispanic-renters-face-greatest-threat-eviction-pandemic.

[7] Cheyne, A. and Ellen Vollinger. (2022, June 17). “Calls for Action to Avert SNAP Hunger Cliff Mount.” FRAC Chat. https://frac.org/blog/calls-for-action-to-avert-snap-hunger-cliff-mount.

[8] U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Policy Support. (2021). Characteristics of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Households: Fiscal Year 2019. https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/Characteristics2019.pdf.

[9] U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Policy Support. (2021) Characteristics of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Households: Fiscal Year 2019. https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/Characteristics2019.pdf.

[10] Folmar, C. (2022, August 15). “62 percent of Americans worried about paying for housing in the next year: poll.” The Hill. https://thehill.com/policy/finance/3603322-62-percent-of-americans-worried-about-paying-for-housing-in-the-next-year-poll/.

[11] Propel. (2022, July). “SNAP Households Survey July Results.” http://joinpropel.com/july-2022-covid-pulse-survey.

[12] Simonetti, I. (2022, September. 6). “Steeper Winter Heating Bills Loom, With Less Federal Aid.” New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/06/business/energy-environment/winter-home-heating.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimesbusiness.

[13] Simonetti, I. (2022, September 6). “Steeper Winter Heating Bills Loom, With Less Federal Aid.” New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/06/business/energy-environment/winter-home-heating.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimesbusiness.

[14] For example, on average in Fiscal Year 2019, 63.6% of SNAP households were at less than the maximum allotment under normal SNAP rules. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Policy Support. (2021). Characteristics of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Households: Fiscal Year 2019. https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/Characteristics2019.pdf.

[15] Cheyne, A. and Vollinger, E. (August 11, 2022). “Annual Inflation Adjustment Will Increase SNAP Allotments but Fundamental Change Is Needed to Close Meal Affordability Gap.” FRAC Chat. https://frac.org/blog/annual-inflation-adjustment-will-increase-snap-allotments.