Congressman Ritchie Torres to NYC Social Services Dept: Expedite Expansion of Fair Fares

Last week, Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15) wrote to Molly Wasow Park, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services, concerning New York City’s Fair Fares program. The letter reads as follows (PDF attached):

“I have been receiving calls from New Yorkers who urgently need but cannot access the benefits of the expanded Fair Fares program. The Mayor and the NYC Council agreed to expand the Fair Fares program in NYC’s budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. Even though the expansion was authorized at the beginning of the fiscal year in July, the Department of Social Services (DSS) inexplicably chose not to expand the program in time for the beginning of the school year—which would have been the logical time for expansion. Delaying the expansion beyond the logical start time means inflicting needless suffering on hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, who have no choice but to cope with the crushing cost of transportation. Think of all the single mothers who must juggle the challenges of parenting with the costs of transporting to two-year community colleges like Bronx Community College and Hostos. In a time of inflation, every dollar counts.  

“When I served in the NYC Council, I had the honor of voting for the creation of the Fair Fares program under the leadership of then Speaker Corey Johnson. The Fair Fares program enables income-eligible New Yorkers—those between the ages of 18 and 64, earning at or below 120% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL)—to save 50% on MTA bus and subway fares, as well as Access-A-Ride fares. Since the program’s inception, there have been 350,000 New Yorkers receiving urgently needed 50% cost savings under Fair Fares. The latest Fair Fares expansion, which has yet to be implemented, raises the income eligibility from 120% to 145%. Up to 200,000 additional New Yorkers are therefore waiting but have yet to receive the benefits to which the NYC budget entitles them. New Yorkers are left wondering about DSS: what are you waiting for? 

“I am respectfully calling upon DSS to expedite the expansion of Fair Fares so that New Yorkers with less no longer have to pay more in transportation costs. The City’s bureaucracy must operate not on its own leisurely timetable but on the timetable of the lowest-income New Yorkers, for whom lower costs are a matter of urgency. The best way to fight inflation is to lower costs, and the best time to lower costs is not later but now.”