After years of protests, hunger strikes and pleas to the city government, 3,000 debt-ridden New York City taxi drivers will be getting a new start.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars will be forgiven from loans incurred by the drivers, 40% of whom are South Asian immigrants, who purchased a taxi medallion before its value became inflated. Mayor Eric Adams and David Do, commissioner of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, announced a finalized relief plan Tuesday.
“Our taxicab medallion owners and drivers have always kept New York City moving, and it is finally time we pay it forward with real debt relief for owners in need,” Adams said in a news release. “We are likely putting tens of thousands of dollars back into the pockets of these owner-drivers.”
New York’s medallion program was once meant to be a way for drivers to buy, operate and profit from their own cabs. But the boom in popularity of ride-hailing services, like Uber and Lyft, severely cut into taxi industry profits in recent years. The loans began to inflate because of predatory lending practices and industry leaders’ driving up of the medallion prices.
This meant crushing debt for owners. The drivers in the program owe upward of $500,000 on average.
“I lost everything,” driver Mohamadou Aliyu told NBC Asian America last year. He originally purchased his medallion for $100,000 as what he thought was a ticket out of poverty. He now owes $630,000 to lenders.
A string of drivers crushed by debt died by suicide in 2018. Aliyu lost nine colleagues and said he even considered taking his life, too. “God knows how many times I think about committing suicide,” he said.
Adams’ relief plan will reduce the amount of debt per driver to a maximum principal balance of $200,000 with lower monthly payments, the statement said. Drivers who own medallions can begin the process of restructuring their loans immediately, now with a city-backed guarantee to fall back on.
The plan was put forth by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, an organization that ramped up protests outside of City Hall last year. On the 15th day of the alliance’s hunger strike in November, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio relented and came to an agreement.
“We are finally at the starting line of a new life for thousands of drivers and our families,” Bhairavi Desai, the alliance’s executive director, said in the release. “I congratulate all our union members who chose to organize, and not despair, and won back their lives.”
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.