Mayor Eric Adams’ recent solution to the migrants’ woes raised eyebrows among New York City residents, as he proposed to distribute prepaid debit cards among NYC asylum seekers.
Adams intends to load these debit cards with $1,000, which will be used supposedly for food and other necessities.
The Adams administration plans to replenish the funds monthly.
The NYC mayor further claimed that this amount would save the city millions. However, the head City Council’s oversight and investigations committee questions why the city immediately issued a $53 million no-bid contract without looking for other options.
“I think you should bid it out to see who would do the best job at the best cost for taxpayers,” quips Councilmember Gale Brewer.
The $53 million contract for Mobility Capital Finance, the company that will facilitate the debit card program, allocates:
- $125,000 one-time set-up fee,
- $250,000 in annual management fees,
- And fees based on how much money is distributed to migrants — $1.5 million for the first $50 million handed out, and $2.5 million for the next $100 million.
The agreement gives out millions to cover the company’s services.
Brewer demands an investigation into Adams’ pilot program that will give as much as a $1,000 monthly stipend to 500 migrants to allow them to buy food, baby products, and other necessities at supermarkets, bodegas, grocery, and convenience stores.
An op-ed by The Post further raised questions on the plan as the actual contract revealed that it is prone to become an “open-ended, multi-billion dollar Bermuda Triangle of disappearing, untraceable cash,” which these migrants may use for any purpose.
The program will give as much as $10,000 from taxpayers’ money with no way to safeguard the funds, no restrictions, and no fraud control.
“I don’t know exactly how it’s going to work. I do see from the release it will be for diapers and baby products and food, but you have to be careful that that’s what it’s actually going to be for,” Brewer said.
“Why Mobility Capital?” The Post further asked.
“New York City is home to hundreds of top-tier financial services and public benefits providers, a dream of a competitive bidding pool, to ensure that the city gets a good price, as well as strong protections against fraud and abuse.”
How did HPD choose Mobility Capital? The contract makes it quite clear: MoCaFi was “referred to HPD by City Hall.”
But no further clues were found aside from a short remark made by Adams calling MoCaFi a minority business “that we met on the campaign trail.”
Since last year, the NYC government has been eagerly searching for projects to give on MoCaFi, hinting at an “upcoming partnership with the mayor’s office,…on a universal basic income project that will give out money to poorer New Yorkers.”
