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Q&A

Chair Stevens questions OmniCard spending and distribution tracking

New York City Council · May 28, 2026 · starts 4:08:18 · 1 min 26 sec

Stevens asks about actual spending for the $11M OmniCard budget. Officials report approximately $4M spent on 80,000 cards for 40,000 SYEP participants, distributed to 90 providers with tight tracking policies on distribution and storage.

Althea V. Stevens

It was about these dog ones.

Althea V. Stevens

Oh, here it goes.

Althea V. Stevens

Sorry.

Althea V. Stevens

Okay, so my next question is just around what is the actual spending for the Omni cards, budgeted at $11 million for the Omni cards, and how many providers have received the cards?

Althea V. Stevens

I'm sorry, I should have had you.

Speaker

We were really trying not to do the shuffling.

Speaker

It didn't work out the way we hoped.

Speaker

Can you repeat that?

Speaker

You're asking about the OmniCards.

Althea V. Stevens

What was the actual spending for FY26 budgeted for the $11 million for the OmniCards?

Althea V. Stevens

How many providers in you have received those cards?

Althea V. Stevens

And does the agency receive any reports from providers on a distribution of those cards?

Speaker

So I will let Valerie speak more to the distribution and providers and receive, but I can tell you that in last year we spent approximately $4 million towards the

Althea V. Stevens

The Omni cards.

Speaker

Yeah, and that funding went to about 80,000 cards.

Speaker

Participants need multiple cards to get through the summer, so it was for about 40,000 participants that we purchased cards for, and they were distributed to 90 providers.

Speaker

And we have very tight policies around the provider's responsibility of tracking which participants get the cards, how many cards they've distributed, where they store them, and they report all of that back to us on a regular basis.

Speaker

And then we use that information to take into account the need for each.

Speaker

Following program cycle.

Althea V. Stevens

Okay.

Althea V. Stevens

Advocates have been, and this is,

Althea V. Stevens

Oh, it's 2.16.