New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) is spending millions on debit cards for border crossers and illegal aliens as a study revealed Wednesday that a majority of New Yorkers live near the poverty line.
This week, Adams announced a pilot program that will funnel $53 million in taxpayer dollars to Mobility Capital Finance via a no-bid contract that will provide 500 foreign families, who crossed the United States-Mexico border, with prepaid debit cards while they live in hotels rent-free.
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The debit cards will provide a family of four with about $35 a day or about $1,000 a month which they can use for anything. The city will refill the debit cards with more money every month, paid for by taxpayers.
Adams has defended the debit cards as a cost-saver for New Yorkers even as the cash flow is likely to be used at the southern border as a selling point for more border crossers and illegal aliens to travel to New York City.
Mayor Eric Adams (D) in Manhattan on February 12, 2024. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
At the same time, a study issued by Columbia University and Robin Hood revealed that in 2021 and 2022, about one-in-four New York City children lived in poverty and 56 percent of New Yorkers lived near the poverty line.
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Put another way, the number of New Yorkers living in poverty increased by 500,000 from 2021 to 2022. According to researchers, this is the single largest increase in poverty since the data first started being tracked 12 years ago.
While living in New York City gets easier for border crossers and illegal aliens, with rent-free luxury hotels and soon-to-be debit cards at their disposal, native New Yorkers are increasingly finding it difficult to stay afloat.
For example, the study found that to break even today, a family of four in New York City must have an annual income of $88,000 per year. Likewise, data shows that the median rent in the city is more than $2,200 a month — up more than two percent compared to the same time last year.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.