New York City is trying to address its massive immigration crisis. What’s the city’s latest measure? Mayor Eric Adams will provide migrants with a prepaid card that will have $13 loaded on it per day to a total of 500 migrant families staying in short-stay hotels, specifically the Roosevelt Hotel.
According to the spokesperson for the mayor of New York City, Kayla Mamelak, the measure will ensure migrants receive $13 a month for 28 days. This project will cost $53 million. Mamelak told Fox 5 NY that it will save the city a significant amount of money: "This is going to be part of our cost-saving measures. We're going to save $600,000 a month, $7.2 million a year."
Additionally, the measure will attempt to boost local business while allowing illegal immigrants to purchase food and supplies. The prepaid cards can only be used at local businesses, specifically at bodegas, grocery stores, supermarkets and convenience stores.
Did Adams award the prepaid card contract to a friend?
However, the measure is not free of controversy. The New York Post learned that the company that won the contract, Mobility Capital Finance (MoCaFi), did not have to go through the competitive bidding process before being awarded the job by the city's Department of Preservation and Development. On the contrary, the newspaper claims, the contract to MoCaFi was "referred to HPD by City Hall."
This was revealed after Adams met with MoCaFi founder Wole Coaxum during his election campaign. However, the mayor claims that he has "no relationship" with Coaxum although Adams did acknowledge that he suggested Coaxum for the $53 million-dollar project.
