“All I want for everybody is just get an answer,” said Schlechter.
“It wasn’t for lack of trying or that we were trying to do anything shady,” explained Goodlow, who oversees the program for the city of Portland. “It is just: human error happens.”
Goodlow admits roughly 1,000 prepaid Visa debit cards never made it their intended recipient. They were likely misaddressed due to a clerical error and returned to the bank. On top of that, other cash cards were accidentally thrown out when they arrived in mailboxes.
“We don’t know how many got thrown away,” said Goodlow. “We just know that we get anywhere from 10 to 30 inquires per day.”