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New York City to End Program Giving Migrants Vouchers for Food

(Bloomberg) -- New York City is ending a program that provides migrants staying in city-funded hotels with prepaid debit cards they can use to purchase food.

The one-year contract with Mobility Capital Finance, known as MoCaFi, will be allowed to expire early next year, according to city officials. The system has been providing about 2,600 families with the vouchers, with $3.2 million loaded onto the cards since the program started. A family of four with young children was eligible for about $350 a week.

The city will instead restart a program that paid for meals to be delivered to migrant families staying at hotels.

“It was an emergency, and now we’re moving in another direction,” Mayor Eric Adams said in an interview with Eyewitness News on Thursday.

The program was criticized for prioritizing the needs of migrants over other residents struggling to feed their families amid surging costs of living in New York, but officials defended it as an efficient way to help some of the tens of thousands of migrants in the city’s care. New arrivals have slowed in recent months, reducing pressure on city services. 

In the same interview with the local ABC affiliate, Adams said that he would collaborate with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration to deal with “pressing issues” facing the city, including funding for migrants.

--With assistance from Nacha Cattan and Laura Nahmias.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.