National Agenda for Street Vendor Justice
About

Our cities are hurting. The very people and businesses who make our communities vibrant and alive suddenly find themselves without any income in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. While many small businesses have received support from both local and federal governments in order to weather this storm, street vendors — a significant portion of urban economies across the United States — have continuously been left out of the conversation.

From Los Angeles to Washington D.C., from New York City to Chicago, street vendors are the eyes and ears of our communities. They are the essential workers ensuring our neighborhoods have fresh, affordable food at all hours of the day. They are parents, caretakers, community members and leaders keeping our streets safe. And they are contributors of significant tax dollars to their state and local economies. Indeed in Los Angeles, the street vending economy generates upwards of $500 million dollars in local revenue.

Despite their influential role in our cities across the nation, street vendors nationwide are being excluded from benefits at every level of government, whether it be due to their immigration status or the informal nature of their work. Unfortunately, this lack of recognition is nothing new. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, street vendors across the nation were facing a laundry list of issues: police harassment and assault, black-market permits, and even deportation.

Current systems of assistance and emergency relief must change to ensure our smallest businesses are included. Relief must be tailored to meet the needs of undocumented immigrants, older populations, and folks operating in informal cash economies. Excluding our most vulnerable community members from disaster relief is discriminatory and amounts to nothing less than a human rights violation. So what do we do now to serve these entrepreneurs who have been perpetually left out, and while working towards a more just future on the other side of recovery?

Street vendor organizations from across the nation have joined together to create a united platform of demands, centering the immediate socioeconomic needs of our communities, while setting the foundation for an equitable national economy that values the contributions of street vendor small businesses. Our voices will be heard, and our communities will count.

Our coalition demands local and federal governments immediately enact the following economic development initiatives in response to COVID-19:

  1. Offer Incentives to All Small Businesses Including Street Vendors — All levels of government are introducing new programs to support small businesses during this pandemic, including loans, grants, and other legal protections. Unfortunately, much of this information is offered only online and in English, and extensive application requirements are barriers for entrepreneurs like street vendors. We need accessible small business support that does not put the “burden of proof” of loss of income on entrepreneurs. All documents should be multilingual and a hotline should be established that provides direct assistance to entrepreneurs applying.
  2. Forgive all Outstanding Fines Issued in 2020 — Cities across the country are offering relief to small businesses who may have incurred late filing fees, parking fines, and other non-criminal violations. Fines levied in 2020 to street vendor micro-businesses should be included in the list of violations and fees forgiven, especially in cities such as LA, DC, and Chicago where vendors have been required by law to discontinue working for the foreseeable future. In NYC where vendors are classified as essential businesses and continue to work, we call for an immediate suspension of fines that do not directly impact health and safety; these penalties are a heavy burden and now more than ever, and should be stopped.
  3. Naturalizing Immigrants & Refugees — Across the country, immigrants are critical frontline workers leading the response to the pandemic in arenas such as public health, construction, food preparation and delivery. We believe naturalizing all residents during the pandemic is the only way to ensure all people, regardless of documentation status, have access to healthcare that protects them and those around them. The COVID-19 pandemic should be a wake up call for everyone to recognize the value these workers have to our collective well-being. Further, states, cities, and counties around the country should enact strong sanctuary jurisdiction laws so that immigrants can feel safe to interact with local government without fear of deportation.
  4. Establish an Eviction Moratorium with Rent Abatement — We believe housing is a basic human right. Unfortunately, many street vendors and their communities are severely “rent burdened,” paying a significant amount of their income on their rent. Since the pandemic has taken away the ability to make an income for many, cities across the country should establish eviction moratoriums, suspension of rent, and automatic forgiveness of any rent, mortgage, or utility payment owed or accumulated during the length of this crisis.
  5. Full Access to Emergency Testing and Healthcare — The virus and its effects do not discriminate based on immigration status, and neither should relief efforts. An effective public health response requires attention to all community members. We must ensure that during this public health emergency, testing and treatment of health conditions is provided by Medicaid for all who need it, regardless of their immigration status. None of us can be healthy if any of us is denied access to testing and care.

Long Term: Sustainable Solutions to Meet the Needs of Street Vendors:

  1. Universal Basic Income — The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored — not created — the deep inequalities in our society. Cash assistance programs created in the wake of the pandemic must be made permanent. These payments should be made to all residents of the United States regardless of immigration status.
  2. All Small Business Incentives Must Include Street Vendors — Without a change in policy, street vendors will continue to be excluded from incentive programs meant to assist small businesses. All grants, loans, and other small business incentives should both include and take into account the specific needs of vendors. These programs should allow applications to be filed by phone or other non-internet methods, ensure that eligibility is not tied to commercial rent or utility payments that vendors do not have, and not exclude enterprises like vendors that operate primarily in cash.
  3. Ensure that all Residents have Access to 21st Century Services — As the Stay at Home orders continue, many street vendors have begun to lose access to the outside world as cell phones and access to the internet have been cut off due to inability to pay bills. Many individuals are not able to access relief services or funds because they cannot search for information or file applications online. This disconnection from the outside world is often a threat, even when we are not in the midst of a pandemic. Access to publicly available internet must be guaranteed for all residents as a means of eliminating the digital divide, alleviating poverty, and serving as a tool to build power in low-income communities.
  4. Full Decriminalization of Street Vending — The criminalization of poverty is unjust, counterproductive, and places low-income and immigrant workers like street vendors at profound risk. Governments around the country should reform local street vending laws so that vending will never result in an arrest and criminal conviction. Localities should also create streamlined and inexpensive licensing and permitting procedures that allow all street vendors to obtain a vending permit. Reformed street vending laws should be grounded in principles of anti-discrimination so as not to bar or unduly burden any entrepreneur on the basis of race, national origin, income, immigration status, or any other reason. Any enforcement of street vending laws that does not significantly impact public health and safety, regardless of whether the vendor has a permit or a license, must end.
  5. Establish Housing as a Human Right — Safe and secure housing is a right that must be guaranteed for all residents of the United States. Governments at every level across the country should ensure that all individuals and families have access to housing by drastically increasing the supply of social housing and supporting the transfer of housing from the speculative market to community control.
  6. Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the Abolishing of ICE — Undocumented immigrants are unable to access crucial components of the safety net like federal cash assistance and unemployment benefits, which widens the gap between them and other Americans. The federal government must create an equitable pathway to citizenship for all and dismantle the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency which has proven to be inhumane and unaccountable. Local governments must pass sanctuary jurisdiction laws to make sure that immigrants feel safe in their communities and that enforcing immigration law is the sole responsibility of the federal government.
  7. Healthcare Access for All — Undocumented immigrants are largely unable to obtain public or private health insurance under our current system. Both Medicaid and Obamacare insurance exchanges should be open to all regardless of citizenship status so that vendors can access free or subsidized health insurance. Vendors and others in the informal economy are particularly harmed by a system that relies on employers to provide health insurance. We should move to a healthcare system in which healthcare is portable, universal, guaranteed by the government, and free.

These demands are shared by a multitude of community-based organizations and coalitions across the country who recognize that in order to build a healthy community, every person within that community must have an opportunity to be healthy. Each of these demands are not only pragmatic, but can be done swiftly. We need all levels of government to recognize the emergency that has long existed in our communities and act now.

Firsthand Testimonies of Vendors from Each City

Los Angeles

  • For years, Patty worked full time cleaning offices and selling clothing as a street vendor on weekends. Patty had to juggle both jobs in order to make ends meet. Due to COVID19 Patty was temporarily laid off. Now she has also been unable to vend on weekends. Patty is worried about making her rent payments and being able to afford basic necessities when she was barely getting by with a full time and part time job.
  • Irma worked full time at a factory and part time as a street vendor selling Salvadorean food. As of 2 weeks ago Irma was laid off due to COVID19 concerns. Selling food full time was how she hoped she would be able to get by. Now she has grown fearful with restrictions on food vendors and is worried that she will not be able to make rent today. She has heard of rent moratoriums on the news and has been trying to contact her landlord for the past week. Her landlord has ignored all of her calls. Irma feels that laws and protections haven’t and won’t help her because she is undocumented.
  • Sara is a full time street vendor. She sells toys in a busy South LA street vending corridor. She is afraid she won’t be able to pay rent today or moving forward. With COVID19 she has no customers and has had virtually no revenue. It took Sara 2 months to save for street vending permit during peak sales. Now she can’t imagine being able to catch up on rent payments. Sara plans on calling her son and asking for help. Despite knowing that her son has also lost his job and is concerned about making his own rent payments. She is hopeful that IAC’s street vendor emergency fund will help her keep her home in April.

New York City

  • Mustafa has been a member of the Street Vendor Project for 6 years. He and his wife Hulya own and operate a fruit and vegetable stand on 14th Street between Avenue A & 1st Ave, where they have worked for the last 20 years. Mustafa recently completed chemotherapy, and won a long and hard-fought battle against cancer. He said he must continue working throughout this crisis in order to support his family, and does not have the appropriate protective gear so that he can do so safely, because it has become so expensive in NYC to get it.
  • Gregoria sells artesanias in Corona Plaza, Queens every weekend. She has been an essential voice in organizing over 30 vendors in Corona Plaza to come to an agreement with the local NYPD 110th Precinct to halt local enforcement on vendors. She is a mother to 5 children. The last time she worked was 3 weeks ago, and after 6 hours she had made $7 dollars. People walking by had told her she needed to go inside and be in quarantine, but she told them they didn’t understand, she had no choice but to be working to support her family.

Washington D.C.

  • Enrique, a founding member of Vendedores Unidos and Ward 1 resident, was the person who captured a video of a gang of police hurting a 15-year- old street vendor, Genesis Lemus, Ward 4 resident, as she was selling plantain chips in front of Panam International Market in Columbia Heights, DC. When COVID-19 struck, Enrique stopped vending and became a COVID Health Promoter. Enrique also housed a homeless, ill community member and began passing out over 400 lunches a week to hungry children and unhoused community members at Civic Plaza. Most recently, Enrique has been a core organizer of Ward 1 and Ward 4 Mutual Aid Efforts by Vendedores Unidos, doing home deliveries of groceries and distributing cash assistance. Enrique will likely not be able to access Federal Cash assistance and would be directly supported by a DC fund for “Excluded Workers.”
  • Arely and Kimberly are a single mother and daughter duo and Ward 1 residents, working hard in the pre-COVID-19 Days as a Columbia Heights street vendor family, selling crema and queso on the streets of Columbia Heights daily to pay the rent and cover the soaring cost of living in DC. Now, Arely, who went through a bout of chemotherapy just months before the outbreak, has lost all income, cannot access any form of cash assistance, and is terrified to leave her home. Arely and Kimberly have already braved police harassment and physical abuse of DC Street Vendors, as well as the perennial harshness of the winter and DC street life. For years, Kimberly has lived in daily fear that ICE will take her mom. Now, Kimberly is terrified that coronavirus will come to take Arely … swiftly and invisibly. Arely and Kimberly are a mixed-status family, will not be able to access Federal Cash Assistance, and would be directly supported by a DC fund for “Excluded Workers.”
  • Augustina is a single mom with two young children, Jimmy and Lindsey, ages 2 and 10, living in Ward 4. Augustina left El Salvador in 2016 in an effort to support her family, her young daughter, Lindsey, and escape community violence. Four months after she arrived in DC, her two younger brothers were murdered in El Salvador. Her 2- year-old, Jimmy, born here, was named in memory of his Uncle Jimmy. Before COVID-19 was declared a “pandemic,” Augustina’s mom, Sebastiana, left for New York City to visit a family member. When New York City was locked down, Sebastiana could not return. Sebastiana was the childcare provider for Augustina’s two young children. When COVID-19 struck, Augustina was laid off from her restaurant job and her job cleaning houses, had no childcare, and no way to seek alternative employment. On March 26, MLOV’s Comité Laboral Organizer, Megan Macaraeg, was able to support the family with $100 in cash assistance from the Ward 1 Mutual Aid Fund. Vendedores Unidos members brought Augustina food, toilet paper, and other necessities. MLOV Bilingual Buddies last heard from Augustina on April 2, 2020. She was desperate to pay the rent and facing increasing pressure from her landlord. As we were poised to begin a GoFundMe Campaign and deliver more groceries and cash assistance, Augustina’s phone was shut off. Organizers have not yet been able to locate her or her children.

About Each Organization

Chicago, IL: Street Vendor Association of Chicago (SVAC)

The Street Vendor Association of Chicago is a membership-led organization of 150 street vendors originally from countries across Latin America, who live and work in Chicago, Illinois. Thirty-six of the members are worker-owners of a cooperatively run commercial kitchen, where the association’s members come each day to prepare their food both to sell in the streets and in partnership with local public schools. SVAC worked with community leaders to push reform through the Chicago City Council to legalize street vending, which was passed in 2015. Contact Fernando: (773) 450–5623, ferhuerta1463@gmail.com (Spanish only)

Los Angeles, CA: LA Street Vendor Campaign, Inclusive Action for the City, East LA Community Corporation

The Los Angeles Street Vendor Campaign (LASVC) is a citywide coalition of community-based organizations, labor unions, and thousands of street vendors who have been working for over a decade to advance and protect the rights of low-income vendors. Our coalition, and the successful worker-led movement to legalize street vending across California, has always been led by those most impacted: low-income vendors. Los Angeles — (818) 489.2495, Lyric@InclusiveAction.org

New York, NY: Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center

The Street Vendor Project (SVP) is a membership-based organization working to defend the rights and improve the working conditions of the approximately 20,000 people who sell food and merchandise on the streets of New York City. SVP, founded in 2001, strives to expand vending as a viable, lawful employment option for immigrants and other entrepreneurs, and to increase public appreciation of how central vending is to our city’s culture and economy. Through direct legal representation, small business training, organizing support, leadership development, and strategic legislative advocacy, SVP builds power and community among vendors. The Street Vendor Project is part of the Urban Justice Center, a non-profit organization that provides legal representation and advocacy to various marginalized groups of New Yorkers. Contact Carina: (413) 441–6632, ckgutierrez@urbanjustice.org

Washington D.C.: Vendedores Unidos, Many Languages One Voice

Vendedores Unidos is an association of street vendors in Washington, DC that came together in 2019 in response to police harassment of street vendors in the city and the near impossibility of obtaining street vending permits. Many Languages One Voice (MLOV) is an immigrant-led and immigrant-based movement organization, building power within the District of Columbia. Contact Megan: (618) 722–8880, megan@mlovdc.org