El Salvador Corridor vendors looking for LA's help returning to longtime home

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Dozens of street vendors in the Los Angeles neighborhood known as the El Salvador Corridor are fighting for their livelihoods after they were kicked out of their long-time home.

The vendors are planning to sue the city of Los Angeles, but also are seeking for the city to adopt a proposed street vending district pilot program for the area.

Vendors have sold their wares along Vermont Avenue for nearly two decades. But some 30 of them were recently evicted from a strip-mall parking lot after they were citied for a zoning code violation.

"We need our market back," one woman said through a translator. "We can feel a difference in the sales, which is how we make a living."

Community activists and the vendors have been fighting to create a street vending district in the area, similar to other parts of the city.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez says her office is working with the vendors to find solutions. But the vendors say the city's lack of action tells a different story.

The coalition representing the street vendors is asking the city attorney for a six-month court extension on the parking lot violation so a resolution can be reached and the vendors can temporarily return in the meantime. The vendors are also taking legal action themselves.

"We're going to make claims and sue the city and seek compensation for these people who are being wrongfully mistreated here," said attorney Humberto guizar.

The El Salvador Corridor Association and vendors plan on speaking out Wednesday at the Los Angeles City Council meeting, to ask for the creation of a street vendor district in the El Salvador Corridor.