City Will Expand Fair Fares Program In Fall, Finally Tell NYers About It
March 5, 2019, 1:34 p.m.
On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to extend the first phase of Fair Fares eligibility in the fall to include NYCHA residents, CUNY students and military veterans living below the federal poverty line.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Council Speaker Corey Johnson at a joint press conference in January
The Mayor's Office is ramping up its effort to provide half-priced MetroCards to low-income New Yorkers—and to make people actually aware of the Fair Fares initiative in the first place—amid growing criticism of the program's lackluster rollout and its persistently low enrollment.
On Monday evening, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to extend the first phase of Fair Fares eligibility in the fall to include NYCHA residents, CUNY students and military veterans living below the federal poverty line. Beginning in January 2020, a full year after the program was expected to launch, the benefit will be available to anyone who meets the income threshold—which works out to an annual income of $12,140 for a single individual or $25,100 for a family of four.
The announcement comes as Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson have struggled to answer questions about the sluggish start to the program, which was intended to serve the 800,000 New Yorkers living in poverty. Presently, enrollment is restricted to those receiving cash assistance and SNAP benefits—a group the city estimates to be around 130,000 people. A city official confirmed to Gothamist on Tuesday that less than 6,000 New Yorkers have actually signed up for the cards.
Frustrated advocates say the Mayor's Office has barely publicized the initiative, with some suggesting that de Blasio, who previously opposed Fair Fares, was not granting the same attention to the program as his other mayoral initiatives.
Seriously, what is going on in the mayor’s office on #FairFares? He’s had months to figure it out — after months of negotiations that preceded the @NYCCouncil landmark vote. What was all that talk for? Now he wants to jettison the immigrant NYers he claims to support? No.
— Francisco Moya (@FranciscoMoyaNY) January 4, 2019
At the program's official launch on January 4th, Community Service Society President David Jones took to the podium to bemoan this apparent lack of urgency: "It takes a process that makes it easy for people to sign up and get their card. It takes an extensive outreach effort—like what was done for Pre-K and paid sick days—to let people know about it, and how to apply. And it takes a concrete timeline that doesn't leave hundreds of thousands of poor people waiting for a program that is coming at some unspecified time in the distant future."
Beyond confirming next year's open enrollment date, the city has also pledged to formally launch a digital advertising campaign to raise awareness of the discounted MetroCards. The ads, which will appear on social media and Google this month, will target the city's zip codes with the highest number of eligible New Yorkers.
Moreover, New Yorkers will soon have the opportunity to apply for the discount online, rather than trekking to a city social services office to present their eligibility requirements. The online portal will open to cash assistance and SNAP recipients in April, according to the city. A pay-per-ride option will also be available sometime this month.
"We’re doing all we can to help low-income riders get around in a city that can be very difficult to afford," the mayor said in a statement. "We think this program will go a long way toward making our city even fairer and we’re excited to expand this unprecedented initiative to more New Yorkers."
