Leaders of local nonprofits and service providers are warning that pending cuts from the federal government and the Trump administration could result in more Islanders becoming unhoused, uninsured, and even more reliant on food banks.
President Donald J. Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law after it was passed by the Senate on July 4th. It marked a harrowing moment for some executives of Island institutions that provide services.
“There’s so much in that bill that will impact the people we serve,” said Julie Kehoe, CEO of Health Imperatives, a nonprofit that provides healthcare to people with or without insurance. “Particularly in a community like Martha’s Vineyard where there are so many people trying to meet their basic needs.”
Critical funding that benefits Vineyard providers such as the Island Grown Initiative (IGI), Harbor Homes, and Health Imperatives has been, or will be chopped, and local experts say the trickle-down effect of those cuts puts more pressure on smaller communities and demand more intervention from the state, according to those who have watched the effectiveness of these services in real time over the past few decades.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” is projected to cut about $880 billion from Medicaid, a federal fund that provides insurance for low- to middle-income children, adults and people with disabilities — and, in Massachusetts, funds MassHealth — as well as $230 billion from SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), also known as food stamps, over the next ten years. Services for unhoused Americans were cut in additional ways, including a new executive order that aims to institutionalize chronically unhoused individuals who have substance-use or mental health disorders.
The bill also has what some locals say are positive tax implications for tipped and overtime workers, a reduction in taxes on Social Security, potential tax breaks for businesses, and significant tax breaks for wealthier Americans.
Health insurance
In Dukes County, nearly 34 percent of children and 23 percent of Dukes County residents of all ages use Medicaid, according to a survey from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. While exactly how many people on the Island could be impacted is difficult to know, according to Massachusetts representatives, the state could lose as much as $3.5 billion in annual healthcare coverage as a result of the bill, and 300,000 residents could have their coverage stripped completely.
Officials with the Healey administration said that a lot of changes to MassHealth — and Medicaid in general — are still unfolding. The possible effects of the bill range from health care provider layoffs, loss of some coverage, and impacts for caregivers who are provided health insurance while taking care of their loved ones. As of now, the program is unchanged. But one thing is clear: state services may have to take on significant costs.
“The state has to make some decisions about how they can help mitigate the effects of the federal cuts, and we don’t know that yet,” chief executive officer of Island Health Care, a local center that provides services to people covered by MassHealth, Cynthia Mitchell said. “But it’s fair to say that there will be cuts, and actually it will put more people without health insurance.”
Cuts to subsidies that were in place through the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, also will mean a likely reduction in coverage for some Islanders. An estimated 90 percent of Medicaid recipients also are eligible for, and receive help from, these subsidies. Mitchell said those cuts may be the most profound.
“Any way you slice it, more people will be uninsured, and those who have been able to afford insurance through that [subsidies] marketplace will be priced out,” Mitchell said.
New work requirements for SNAP and Medicaid, which are not going into effect immediately, could mean that people who are unemployed would lose Medicaid coverage. Anyone enrolled in the programs will have to prove they work at least 20 hours a week, are volunteering, or are in school. It’s unclear how each state will define some of the requirements. There are also exemptions for people with disabilities.
Anyone without full American citizenship status won’t be eligible for SNAP and Medicaid benefits due to the new “One Big Beautiful Bill,” even if they are granted asylum, are tax-payers, or are on humanitarian parole.
Impacts for the unhoused
Services to unhoused people were affected as well. A national hotline for LGBTQIA+ — available through 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — was removed after funding cuts; an act which ensures unhoused youth can still enroll in school, was largely defunded; and there was a reduction in rental assistance through HUD (Housing and Urban Development), which could affect many low-income people who rely on the program for housing.
“We will see an increase in the unhoused through all of this,” said executive director Mike Bellissimo of Harbor Homes, a Vineyard nonprofit that provides services for unhoused locals.
New reports conducted by Harbor Homes showed that this year, 340 people on the Island are unhoused, including 60 families; 143 of which have a paying job. The vast majority are aged 40 to 64, but Bellissimo said they’re seeing a rise in young people at the shelter; the cuts to LGBTQIA+ services through the recent bill are causing him concern that the trend will not just continue, but will increase even more.
On the Island this year, 37 locals from the age of 18-25 have utilized Harbor Home’s services. Bellissimo said many of those people were in untenable situations, some due to their sexuality or gender identity. Without the national crisis line, Bellissimo said calls may increase to Harbor Homes.
“The whole point [of the hotline] was to give them a safe space that was just for them. 1.2 million people called that number in 2024,” Bellissimo said. “The government spent about $25 million for that service … [That’s about] $20 a person. $20 is a small price to pay to save somebody’s life.”
Another of Bellissimo’s concerns is cuts to the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program. One part of it, called the Mckinney-Vento Act, was largely eliminated. The act mainly ensures that unhoused children and teenagers will have access to school through transportation, enrollment, and other services. But for Island public schools, the benefits students received through the act are expected to be protected.
“In my understanding, we [will] continue to provide full access to school and transportation whether the child [is] unhoused or in foster care,” said Hope MacLeod, local McKinney-Vento representative and director of student support services.
Bellissimo also worries about the impacts to long-term solutions for those who are chronically unhoused, especially with cuts to Medicaid.
“You can’t just assume by giving people a safe place to live they’re gonna be OK — they need supportive housing [to] get clean, have counseling, [and] all of those are funded through Medicaid,” Bellissimo said.
Medicaid, SNAP — and additional cuts in relation to Section 8 vouchers for low-income rental assistance through HUD — all have success rates based on longevity, not just emergency-based support, he clarified. Bellissimo referenced the length of time it takes for some to see the benefits of programs on their wellbeing. Time limits (of two years) on rental-assistance and new work requirements for Medicaid coverage could halt progress before it starts for those who need extended care.
“The only narrative that fits here is we’ve de-funded and unfunded things people depend on for their life and wellbeing,” Bellissimo said.
And Kehoe said their healthcare nonprofit, which has a location in Vineyard Haven, relies on state and federal funding. Health Imperatives provides sexual and reproductive health services to men, women, and non-binary Islanders regardless of citizenship status. While their doors are open to anyone who needs health care, reduction in this funding and health insurance services poses a very real threat.
“We’re concerned that need is going to grow, disparity is going to grow, and resources are going to dwindle,” Kehoe said. “We lean into these big problems … [But this is] really going to hit the lowest income people the most, and middle-income people.”
Kehoe said Health Imperatives is revisiting their fundraising model as a way to navigate the changing times.
“We have a real need to diversify our funding,” Kehoe said. “[We] continue to be nimble … [And we’re] being creative in how we administer services. This is an opportunity as well as a challenge.”
Food security
The cuts to SNAP, or food stamps, are a top concern of nonprofit executives. Low- to middle-income households on the Vineyard not only actively use food security programming like SNAP, but since the COVID pandemic, hundreds more have outreached for assistance through the food pantry.
A statistical report from the Martha’s Vineyard Commission found that in 2023, more Islanders were enrolled in SNAP programs than years prior. They saw a 119 percent increase in locals on Food Stamps from 2011 to 2021, and in 2024, the local food pantry saw a rise in registered clientele — the amount of people utilizing the free food program has more than doubled in the past five years.
In 2024, 5,700 locals were registered clients, and nearly 400 people drove through the pantry to pick up the farm-fresh food each week. And their ready-made-meal delivery program for elderly locals, people with disabilities or those with no transportation, plus their frozen meals at the pantry, has risen from 2,304 in 2018 to a projected 75,000 individual meals in 2025.
Back in January, executive director of IGI, Noli Taylor, said services were spiking. But now with new federal funding cuts, she said they’re bracing for a stark uptick in free food needs.
“[This bill passing] shifts more of the responsibility of feeding people to nonprofits at a time when food costs are so high and we’re already strained,” Taylor said.
Taylor said her concerns are outlined in reports the Greater Boston Food Bank conducted that show the possible effects of federal cuts laid out in the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Their analysis found that if the cuts to SNAP and School Meals alone went through without state intervention, usage of food pantries across Massachusetts could increase by 77 percent.
“That wasn’t even factoring in the cuts to Medicaid,” Taylor said about the figures in the report.
Taylor said there is a silver lining — some state officials are stepping in to try and fill the void. The MEFAP (Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program) funding that Governor Maura Healey approved for the 2026 state budget includes $42 million for the program, which Taylor said is about an $8 million increase from years prior. And Massachusetts lawmakers passed increased funding for school meal programs as well, although SNAP had no extraneous state support that differed from other years.
“Many other states don’t have the resources or political will to do those things, so there’s some reprieve,” Taylor said. “This is a time that’s going to require a lot of creativity. We’re going to need community solutions, and we’re going to need neighbors helping neighbors. We live in such a caring community — [but this is] going to ask a lot of us.”
This is a very important article. Perhaps a follow up that surveys and then quantifies the financial need to cover the federal shortfall on MV could lead to a single fund raising effort that could keep things going until next summer when a follow up could get ongoing financial support.
Yes, it’s a very important article but there’s no mention of the impact of trump’s cuts on veterans. I was at the Sharks game in July that was a benefit for veterans and spoke with several of them who said they had lost funding for veterans housing on MV. It would be interesting to speak to MV residents who voted for trump and get their take on all of this.
If you voted for Trump, you voted for this. People will suffer.
The struggle for families to meet the basic human needs for housing, food, health care and mental health care is real and impacting wide segments of our community. The impacts are inter related. To pay rent, families are doing without food. Health care and mental health care are not even part of the equation for many of our neighbors. We are a generous community, but private funding is never enough. These basic needs have historically been met by the social safety net built by our progressive government over the past 60 years. That is not the view of the current regime. Let them eat cake would at least provide them with the promise of cake. Even if they weren’t allowed to eat it at a gated country club or the newly gilded rooms in the White House. We should all be ashamed of what is happening to our country.
Our Governor somehow found a Billion dollars in the last year to feed, house and transport people who had no right to be in this country. She garnered over 70% of the island voters in her election win. Why don’t these islanders pressure their darling Governor to pony up the money. Why should Federal taxes paid by folks living in Appalachia fund folks living in one of most prosperous places in the U.S.?
Outstanding point and accurate point, yet lost in the big picture.
Somehow the island found the money to clear out homeless encampments