Street Vendors Rally for Rent Cancelation in Los Angeles

Los Angeles street vendors took to the streets on International Workers Day to rallying for inclusion in the recovery planning process. Their demands of the city included the cancellation of rent, refunded permit fees, and cash assistance.

"Los Angeles’ street vendors were among the first to be acutely impacted by the city’s shutdown nearly two months ago. Averaging just over $10,000 a year in income, most have little savings to fall back on and few places they can turn for help," reports Sahra Sulaiman. Street vendors were also labeled as "an immense public hazard" by the Los Angeles City Council at the onset of the outbreak, one of the first groups to experience moratorium. "No mention was made of the vital access to fresh food, fruits, and vegetables vendors are providing at a moment when public transit is being scaled back in communities where grocery stores are still few and far between," adds Sulaiman. Instead, the Department of Public Health asked the public to report unpermitted vending operations. 

With no sick pay, assistance beyond community aid, and with little access to healthcare, the street vendors and organizers traveled via car to the Department of Public Works to convey a simple message: without work, there's no money to pay the rent.