Thousands of yellow cab medallion owner-drivers are in a crisis of life-long debt due to no fault of their own.  They are at immediate risk of foreclosures and bankruptcies, after having already lost their retirement.  This crisis is not an accident.  It is the direct result of failed city policies and neglect.

NYC issued the medallions, set the opening bid at auctions, and wrote direct letters and made TV ads encouraging mostly immigrant drivers to buy medallions as a safe investment.  City officials even lied to drivers, publicizing the medallion price to be higher than they knew it to be. Unaware of the lies, drivers bought these medallions with the understanding that through the city’s continued regulation of the industry and our own hard work, we could have a chance at a decent living.  But the City then allowed in Uber & Lyft with no regulation, crashing the medallion price the city itself had inflated.  By then, the city had already made $850 Million from the medallion sales.  Drivers, meanwhile, were left in debt and poverty.  Banks not allowed to lend in the housing market were allowed to loan to drivers and have made millions from fees and terms banned in other lending.  Now, the banks are threatening foreclosures instead of working out real debt restructuring with us.  Even though the hedge funds have spent less than $120,000 to purchase our loans from other private lenders, they are still holding us to debts as high as $300,000.  The “market,” meanwhile, can only sustain medallions of less than $100,000.  In other words, we would be working to only pay off the mortgage and using credit cards to pay for rent and groceries because our income would not be enough.  We refuse to let the city and the banks keep us in a prison of debt.  We refuse to give up our fight for justice.

Banks and hedge funds need to stop medallion foreclosures and come to terms over real debt forgiveness. The City of New York and our local and national leaders need to bring the banks and hedge funds to the table and help bring about the solution.