State Assembly Passes Bill to Help Street Vendors

On Aug. 14, the California State Assembly voted 47-0 to pass Senate bill 297, which is designed to make it easier for street vendors to operate in the state. Next, the bill will go to the Senate for a recurrence vote, and then to the governor for his signature.

“It’s going to make a huge impact, because the Department of Public Health has made it close to impossible,” said activist Edin Amorado. “They had only approved a tamale cart, which is super expensive to begin with. And they don’t even have an agreement as far as how they can make it legal for a corn-man to have his cart approved. So, this is definitely going to update and streamline the retail food code.”

California state Sen. Len Gonzales held a rally on the steps of the state capital building the morning before the vote, urging the Assembly to pass the bill.

“What we want to do is ensure that we are doing away with the outdated and harmful barriers that impede vendors from continuing to do what they do every day, which is feed our community,” Gonzalez said. “And supporting the wonderful food vendors means supporting a racially diverse community, as I mentioned. California can provide greater support to microentrepreneurs by eliminating the criminal penalties and instead building more trust in our communities.”

Brandon Payette, a staff attorney from Public Counsel, said that the state should welcome vendors into the formal economy, instead of treating them like a nuisance. He said that a panel of vendor experts has guided the content and strategy of the bill.

“This panel of vendor experts has been meeting weekly for months, examining California’s laws from top-to-bottom,” Payette said.

Payette said the bill will recognize street vendors with their own category in the state’s food laws.

“For the first time, California will enact a set of food laws that sidewalk vendors were included in the process of writing,” Payette said. “Laws that contemplate vendors means laws whose goals is to bring vendors in, not to keep them out.”

Alicia Olmedo, a street vendor who has sold food for 40 years, was recently told it is illegal to operate in Southgate. She tried to get her permit from the health department, and was sent to different offices, never getting enough information to help her.

Olmedo said she has witnessed other vendors being harassed, and has seen the police and health department throw away vendors’ food when they don’t have permits. She has since been displaced from selling in Southgate, as she was told by the police to leave.

Marcel Douglas, a Jamaican street food vendor from Los Angeles, said she loves serving food, but the difficulty in securing a permit takes a toll on her, and makes her want to stop.

“The pressure to obtain this is astronomical,” Douglas said. “I’m doing an event next week, and for me to do that event I have to obtain a oneday pass. It’s $184. And each time I do an event, it’s $184.”

She said if she does an event that lasts several days, she can spend half of what she is making on just the health permits.

A rally outside the state’s capitol for Senate bill 297, organized by state Sen. Len Gonzalez. Photo courtesy of Sen. Gonzalez’s Twitter

“If this bill is passed, that will take me out of financial hardship, and will help me to grow my business,” Douglas said.

Assemblyman Isaac Bryan said that while street vending is no longer criminalized (it was decriminalized in 2020), there are a bunch of bureaucratic barriers that make it harder for vendors to survive.

Amorado said this law will also keep vendors safer than they were previously.

“There’s a lot of street vendors who sell in dangerous streets because they are pretty much not being harassed by DPH or police,” Amorado said. “They’ll be able to basically choose safer places to sell.”

Amorado pointed out that a bill that was introduced in the Senate in February that would further criminalize street vending, Senate bill 1290, had died.

“I was confused, because it seemed like it was an oxymoron when it passed the Senate, that a good bill that would benefit street vendors passed, but also a bad one that would criminalize them even more,” Amorado said.

Douglas said the bill would have a lasting impact on vendors and their families.

“The support we have been getting for SB 972 will provide economic growth for families to build generational wealth,” Douglas said.