NYC migrant families could make up to $15K per year under controversial $53M pre-paid credit card program
A family of four migrants with two children under age 17 could get $15,200 a year under the Big Apple’s controversial new $53 million program to dole out pre-paid credit cards to asylum seekers, The Post has learned.
Details of the Immediate Response Card initiative have been scant ever since The Post reported earlier this month that the city had inked the multi-million contract with New Jersey banking company Mobility Capital Finance to dish out the taxpayer funds to asylum seekers to help them buy food.
Facing scrutiny, the city’s department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) insisted Tuesday that the $53 million will both cover fees and other expenses for the bank — known as MoCaFi — as well as the cash being dished out to migrants as part of a one-year pilot program.
City officials gave The Post a breakdown chart of exactly how much asylum seeker families stand to receive under the program — ranging from $345 a month for a single migrant to $2,203 per month for a family of eight.
A family of three could receive $932 per month, while a family of four could net a $1,195 allowance per month to use at bodegas, grocery stores, supermarkets and convenience stores, according to the breakdown.
The monthly amounts increase for those who have children: $100 a month for those with kids under 5 and $36 for those with children aged 5 to 17 years.
A pregnant asylum seeker can also receive an additional $36 per month on the pre-paid cards, per the city’s cost chart.
A start date has yet to be set for the program, which will initially roll out to 500 newly arrived families at the Roosevelt Hotel — but could expand to include a maximum of 6,500 families if it proves successful, officials said.
The city didn’t provide an exact make-up of the 500 families that are to be included in the pilot, or say how many individuals would be included in that group.
The cost breakdown emerged after the city has faced mounting questions in recent weeks over the plan to hand out the taxpayer-funded cash to newly arrived migrants in an attempt to replace the current food services being offered in short-term hotel shelters.
The city has defended the pilot, saying it’ll solve the long-running issue of wasted food at migrant shelters, ultimately saving more than $7.2 million a year.
Controversial company DocGo was found to be dumping thousands of dollars of uneaten meals at the shelters — and migrants have told The Post that they would rather cook in their rooms because the provided food was so “bad.”
Mayor Eric Adams insisted on Tuesday that he had “no relationship” with MoCaFi founder, Wole Coaxum, but acknowledged he was the one who floated the former JP Morgan executive’s name to HPD for the no-bid city contract.
“There is no relationship other than a professional relationship,” Hizzoner said at a City Hall briefing when probed about their ties. “We don’t hang out in the Hamptons together or go to the baseball game together.”
The city’s $53 million migrant credit card contract with MoCaFi simply says the bank was “referred to HPD by City Hall.”
The mayor elaborated further on Tuesday, saying he came across Coaxum during his 2021 mayoral campaign while meeting with prominent people in business, education and healthcare to “find ideas of how to run cities more efficiently.”
Coaxum, the mayor said, gave a presentation tied to a contract MoCaFi had landed with Los Angeles to dish out relief funds on pre-paid credit cards during COVID.
“It went into my book of ‘we will visit later’,” Adams said. “And little did I know, while we were working with them on some other projects, this came up about how do we deal with food waste, how do we invest in our local economy.”
“I reached out to the first deputy mayor and said, hey, you remember that presenter we had called MoCaFi? Can we go look and see if that product is suitable here? And that’s how we have it, so there’s no relationship.”
City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamalek said in a statement, “the MoCaFi pilot program can only be utilized at supermarkets and bodegas, and it is expected to save the city millions of dollars in services for families with children in our care.”
“The suggestion that New York City is handing out thousands of dollars in free cash to migrants is false, plain and simple,” she added.
Coaxum, on his part, donated $250 to Adams’ mayoral campaign, public records show.
Under the $53 million migrant credit card contract, the city has already paid MoCaFi $573,000 in initial costs, records show.
MoCaFi already has at least two existing contracts with the Big Apple, including a $5.6 million deal to provide banking services for New Yorkers without bank accounts, city records show.
The other deal, which has seen MoCaFi paid $267,000 to date, is for staffing and consulting for the city’s Civic Engagement Commission.
Coaxum’s company has previously entered into multi-million contracts with other cities — including a $2.5 million deal with LA to help distribute pre-paid credit cards to low-income residents between 2020 and last year.
In Detroit, the company was briefly contracted to provide governmental IDs to residents — but the deal was cancelled after a local councilmember raised fears personal data was being leaked to US Immigration Customs and Enforcement.
The city and MoCaFi both vehemently denied the claims at the time but the contract was still axed.
