Falling Through the Cracks: One Woman’s Story of Hunger and Homelessness

When Cassandra (“Cassie”) Doyle arrived in Nashville in December of 2025, she was seeking a fresh start. Instead, she found herself caught in a web of bureaucracy and policy changes that left her, a 61-year-old woman with serious health conditions, without the food assistance she desperately needed.

Cassie’s journey began in Minnesota, where a cascade of misfortunes like job loss, depleted savings, and a failing heart forced her to leave her home. “I knew I was going to be homeless,” she recalls. “It was zero degrees and below. I had to go somewhere.” She landed in Nashville, hoping for a new beginning. Instead, she was hospitalized for complications from chronic atrial fibrillation (AFIB), and soon after, diagnosed with uterine cancer.

After her release from the hospital, Cassie entered a women’s shelter. The staff handed her a list of resources, but the rest was up to her. They suggested SNAP but navigating the application process was daunting. Her phone service was unreliable due to her unhoused status. She received conflicting instructions about whether to apply online or in person, and public transportation made every errand an ordeal. “I was confused and overwhelmed,” Cassie admits. She found it hard to keep track of everything.

Despite these hurdles, Cassie managed to apply for SNAP benefits in January. She was approved and began receiving assistance in February. But just three months later, a letter from the Department of Human Services arrived: her benefits were terminated. She was classified as an Able-Bodied Adult Without Dependents (ABAWD) under new rules implemented by the HR1 bill passed in July 2025.

Cassie called DHS immediately: “They just said, ‘Oh yeah, they denied you.’ I said, ‘Is there something I need to do? And if so, what do I need to do?’” The DHS worker responded, “I don't know, you're just gonna have to reapply.”

While TJC’s casework team has been working diligently to help Cassie navigate the process, DHS has yet to reinstate her SNAP benefits for non-HR1 related issues. The HR1 bill expanded the age range for SNAP work requirements and eliminated exemptions for unhoused individuals. For Cassie, this meant that despite being nearly 62, homeless, and battling cancer and heart disease, she was subject to the same work requirements as a healthy 30-year-old. Before HR1, being unhoused would have exempted her.

The loss of SNAP was just one blow in a series of bureaucratic setbacks. Cassie’s attempts to secure disability benefits and housing were delayed by system glitches and eligibility traps. She was repeatedly denied healthcare coverage, and her housing application was lost in the shuffle for weeks. “It’s just one thing after another,” she says. “You feel like that crack is there right when you don’t want it, and you’re the person that falls through it.”

Even still, Cassie remains determined. “I needed to be able to do it for myself. I needed to try,” she says, describing how she used a walker to climb stairs at the shelter, refusing to give up. Still, she worries about the future. “I want to move forward, but I don’t have the opportunity.”

Cassie’s story is not unique. Across Tennessee, people experiencing homelessness and older adults with serious health challenges are losing access to food assistance because of HR1’s policy changes. Without restoring exemptions for unhoused and older individuals, and without proactive case management, more people will fall through the cracks.