Pols aim to aid those in distress

The City Council passed legislation Wednesday to get struggling taxi drivers mental health and financial help — just as the city announced the eighth taxi driver suicide of the year.

“My hope is that thousands of taxi drivers can finally find some relief and know that there is help for them,” bill sponsor Councilman Rafael Salamanca (D-Bronx) said. “This bill is for all cab drivers in New York who have been suffering in silence, not knowing that they're going to pay their debt, feed their family or keep a roof over their head.”

Just hours after Salamanca spoke about his bill at a City Hall press conference, the Taxi and Limousine Commission confirmed that yet another taxi owner and driver, Roy Kim, had died by suicide. He is the eighth to die this year.

Salamanca's bill would require the TLC to connect drivers with mental health counseling, financial counseling and other help when requested. It's part of a package of bills regarding the city's yellow cab and black car industry — which has been upended by the explosive growth of e-hail apps. The value of taxi medallions have plummeted in the city, leaving some owners in financial ruin.

“I think that what gives us hope is that this is a City Council that's taking our crisis seriously and approaching it with a lot of humanism,” Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said.

But she was hopeful the Council would take up the mantle of pressing lenders or philanthropists to provide financial relief to medallion owners, which she suggested they do by writing off 20% of outstanding debts.

“I think now we just need to start seeing concrete financial change especially for the medallion sector,” she said.

Another bill passed Wednesday will require the city to study those medallion values — and their effect on the city budget — and propose future changes.