New York City will offer pre-paid credit cards to migrants that will allow them to purchase food.
This effort is a continuation of the city’s partnership with New Jersey’s Mobility Capital Finance, which provided similar cards during the holidays to needy residents of city housing. Now, some 500 families staying at the Roosevelt Hotel will receive the cards, according to sources cited by the New York Post. The amount allotted every 28 days will depend on the size of the family, with a family of four receiving $1,000. The pilot program will cost the city $53 million.
In order to receive the cards, migrants will have to first sign affidavits agreeing to only spend the allowance on food and baby supplies or else risk losing the privilege. The cards will only be accepted at grocery stores, convenience stores, and bodegas.
“MoCaFi looks forward to partnering with New York City to disburse funds for asylum seekers to purchase fresh, hot food,” MoCaFi CEO and founder Wole Coaxum said. “MoCaFi’s goal is to expand access to financial resources for individuals excluded from banking, such as asylum seekers, while helping the local economy.”
Migrants have complained in the past of the city’s efforts to feed them in hotels for $11 per meal, as the cuisine is different from their home country’s. Mayor Eric Adams‘s spokeswoman, Kayla Mamelak, claimed the program would allow the migrants more freedom in choice.
“Not only will this provide families with the ability to purchase fresh food for their culturally relevant diets and the baby supplies of their choosing, but the pilot program is expected to save New York City more than $600,000 per month, or more than $7.2 million annually,” Mamelak said.
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Adams reported over 157,000 immigrants have arrived in New York City since last year. That population is one-and-a-half times the size of Albany, New York.
According to the most recent press release from the office of Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), over 37,600 immigrants New York City received were sent by Texas since August 2022. This effort has also sent immigrants to Los Angeles, Denver, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.
