ELACC’s Street Vendor Organizing works with vendors in order to find solutions so they can earn a living, assists in formalizing their businesses and helps expand street vendors’ income potential through supportive services.

Street vendors in the Boyle Heights community have worked here for decades.  The need to work in this underground economy grows more and more due to the economic crisis and the lack of employment opportunities in the community.  With few prospects for employment, community members turned to street vending as a way to earn a living.  Street vending in Boyle Heights is about community members creating jobs for themselves when there are few opportunities for traditional employment.

The problem
There is a lack of traditional employment opportunities in the community and there are many people able and willing to work. Throughout the decades community members have created jobs for themselves by setting up small businesses that prepare and sell foods to their neighbors and other customers on the streets of Boyle Heights. The process for becoming licensed as a street vendor in Los Angeles is close to impossible to complete since there are many agencies to deal with and too many requirements that close opportunities to vendors.

The solution
We need to address the issue of lack of economic opportunities by supporting street vendors' entrepreneurship. County, City and Health departments and agencies need to work with community organizations and community members in order to create paths to legalization.

Our campaign goals
The only way to solve the street vending problem is for agencies, governing bodies and community organizations to work together to legalize street vending in the community and work toward paths of legalization that take into consideration the needs of the community that we live in. Our goals are to:

• Create opportunities for vendors to work legitimately such as farmers markets in the community. This supports the vendors in taking a step towards legitimate employment.
• Define areas in which vending can take place through the Boyle Heights Community Plan update.
• Reassessment of the permit process so that it take the needs of low-income communities into account so that it opens opportunities for legalization so that vendors can continue to support their families.
• Change the law so that vending can happen on sidewalks.

How this changes lives
Street vendors are hard working entrepreneurs striving to create a better life for their families and themselves. The creation of legal street vending in Boyle Heights will help local vendors with few employment options to earn an honest living and provide food, clothing and shelter for their families. Winning this campaign will positively impact many families in the Boyle Heights community.