7,300 Migrants to Receive Food Debit Cards as New York City Expands Program

New York City officials are dramatically expanding a controversial program that gives debit cards to migrant families staying in city-funded hotels, allowing them to buy their own food as the city tries to cut the costs of caring for migrants.

The debit cards are expected to be distributed to more than 7,300 migrants over the next six months at a cost of about $2.6 million, city officials said, building on a pilot program that began earlier this year with about 900 families, or nearly 3,000 migrants.

The program drew fierce skepticism when it was proposed in February, largely because of fears the cards would be misused and concerns about whether migrants were getting preferential treatment over others in need.

Program officials said fraud prevention measures had been effective, with the cards being used as intended to feed more than 1,300 children and 42 pregnant women in the first 13 weeks of the program.

With more than 60,000 migrants currently being served by the city, the program, which is expanding from three hotels to 17, could serve about 1,230 people per month, or about 2 percent of the total migrant population.

The program is part of a deal with Mobility Capital Finance, known as MoCaFi, that could cost the city up to $53 million, with $2 million going to the company and the rest distributed to families, city officials said. Under the pilot program, a family of four with young children would receive about $350 a week for a month.

City officials say the program is significantly less expensive than a previous meal delivery program, which was expected to cost about $5.6 million over the next six months.

Over the past year, food deliveries and other services at some hotels housing migrants have been provided by DocGo, a medical services company, without a registered contract, according to a letter the city sent to the comptroller’s office in June and obtained by The New York Times.

DocGo spent about $13 million between July 2023 and April 2024 and could receive up to $32 million in total for those services through July, according to the letter, which has not been previously made public. DocGo won a separate $432 million no-bid contract with the city to provide services to migrants; the city decided to phase out its reliance on DocGo and reintroduce competitive bidding after troubling allegations were made against the company.

DocGo spokesman Thomas Meara said in a statement that the company was proud of its work and had “leveraged our logistics technology, infrastructure and experience to deliver more than 1.3 million meals to over 16,000 asylum seekers” staying in hotels.

With more than 200,000 migrants arriving in New York City in the past two years, Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has been looking for ways to cut costs. Many meals delivered to migrants have never been eaten and have been thrown away.

However, Joseph Borelli, the Republican minority leader on the City Council, expressed concern that the city was planning to spend billions of dollars on services for migrants without it ultimately happening.

“I understand that this is cheaper than a failed system of no-bid contracts, but it is a sign that the migrant crisis is here to stay and that taxpayers will be responsible for it until the second coming,” he said.

The city is legally required to provide food to migrants under a right-to-shelter obligation that has guaranteed housing for the homeless for decades.

The debit cards are being distributed to migrants staying in hotels used as emergency shelters under a 28-day voucher program, but the debit card program could eventually expand further.

The city’s deputy mayor for health and social services, Anne Williams-Isom, hailed the pilot scheme as a success, saying it supported migrants, reduced costs and put money back into local businesses where the cards are used.

“When we empower people, we help them become self-reliant and achieve the American dream,” she said.

At one of the first hotels where the cards were distributed, in Chinatown in Lower Manhattan, families said they spent the money at nearby bodegas and a corner deli that sells sandwiches, salads, fruit and chips, as well as $3 empanadas and $8 breakfast burritos.

A Venezuelan family of three who checked into the hotel on Friday went straight to the local grocery store to make their first purchases with the debit card. The father, Cesar Gil, 22, said he was given a card with less than $100 for the week, while the mother, Naudelys Aguiar, 24, was given a card with $170 for herself and her 4-year-old son, Jeremias.

“We didn’t even expect it,” Mr. Gil said in Spanish, expressing gratitude. “They told us it was only for food, no fast food, only in certain places, and that no cash transfers or card sharing were allowed.”

Jeremias ran around the deli, trying to persuade his parents to buy him a rainbow cookie or a coffee cake while the adults struggled to understand the menu options. They settled on two panini sandwiches, a container of four hard-boiled eggs, three sodas and two large bags of chips.

They handed the gray debit card to the cashier — who said the cards had become commonplace at the store — then scanned the receipt to see their lunch total: $44.61.

The debit cards are digitally encoded to ensure they will only work at certain stores, and participants must sign an affidavit stating they will only use the cards for food and baby supplies or risk being kicked out of the program.

Some families said their purchases were limited because cooking was prohibited in hotel rooms. Some said they used the money before the end of the week, others tried to be frugal. Most said the cards gave them more flexibility to feed their children the types of foods they liked.

Brenda Sierra, a 29-year-old Colombian mother who arrived in New York with her 9-year-old son, Emerson, has been getting $170 a week on her debit card. On Friday afternoon, Ms. Sierra took her son for a quick stroll through a Chinese fruit market a few blocks away before returning to the hotel with red plastic bags filled with peanuts, kiwis and dragon fruit.

“He hasn’t gotten used to the food here; he only eats fruits and some carbohydrates and vegetables,” Sierra said, adding that she missed the hearty soup and rice dishes of her hometown of Cartagena.

Ms. Sierra, who is unemployed, said she hopes to find a job soon and save money to rent an apartment and pay for her own food.

“That’s the idea, not to always live off the government,” she said in Spanish.