New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended his policy that uses taxpayer dollars to fund debit cards for immigrants as a cost-effective measure of responsibility.
“The reason it’s created such controversy is because [of] how it has been reported and distorted,” Adams told CNBC on Friday. “We are required to feed migrants and asylum-seekers, as well as everyone else in our homeless system. … About 40,000 are in the homeless system that are not migrants and asylum-seekers.”
“We’re required to feed them, and so, what I told the team to do is we have to find a way to do it that’s less costly, because we’re in a 30% decrease in the course of the migrant crisis, and that we don’t have food waste,” he said.
Through this program, New York City has managed to save money, Adams said.
“We’re saving approximately $600,000 a month, $7.2 million a year, by giving individuals a card that allows them to buy food or baby supplies, spending $13 a day on food,” he said.
“That’s cheaper. That’s less food waste. This is a real win-win for us.”
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Money spent by the migrants will benefit New York City’s economy, the mayor said.
“The money will go into the local economy, ’cause now [we’re] going to the local stores, supermarkets, where we’re gonna hire local,” Adams said. “This is a smart way to bring down the cost and replace the money back into our city.”
