The city has quietly shuttered enrollment centers where New Yorkers can sign up for municipal identification cards since Mayor Eric Adams took office, a review by Gothamist found.
The decline in the number of enrollment centers is contributing to delays in securing appointments — and even caused some people to wait in long lines outside in the snow to obtain IDs that offer a lifeline for New Yorkers who lack other government-issued identification, according to the program’s staunchest supporters.
The city-issued photo ID cards can help New Yorkers open bank accounts, enter their children’s schools or have identification to show police. While the city issued more ID cards in the last year than the year before, the data doesn’t capture those who want cards but can’t secure appointments.
“It is harder and harder for New Yorkers to actually get an IDNYC card. We are making it impossible to get an appointment,” said Councilmember Lincoln Restler of Brooklyn, who helped launch the program in 2015.
The Department of Social Services, which administers the IDNYC program, said fewer sites are part of the city’s new model to consolidate smaller sites into larger, more centrally located facilities to maximize capacity.
DSS spokesperson Nicholas Jacobelli said the consolidation contributed to more cards being issued last year.
“We issued 43% more IDNYC cards in 2023 when compared to 2022, and we continue to take the necessary steps, like transitioning to an appointment-only model, to continue to efficiently and effectively serve more New Yorkers,” he said in an email.
In 2016, a year after then-Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city-issued photo ID program — known as IDNYC — more than two dozen enrollment centers opened inside libraries, nonprofits and hospitals throughout the five boroughs. Now, just 10 enrollment locations remain, according to the city’s own website.
“I am heartbroken that one of the major accomplishments of the previous administration…
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