LA City Council forgives 6 months of back rent for Olvera Street merchants

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- In an effort to revive one of Los Angeles' most popular tourist destinations, the city council is forgiving a large chunk of back rent owed by many of the Olvera Street merchants.

Since 1930, Olvera Street has been a Mexican marketplace that caters to locals and tourists. Like other market places in the city, the pandemic took it's toll on the family-owned businesses.

A few didn't survive. The ones that have received a huge break from the Los Angeles City Council. It took a few seconds for them to forgive the merchants' rent for the first six months of the year.

Valerie Hanley is with the Olvera Street Merchants Association and her family runs a business there.

"My goodness, it's huge," she said about city council's move. "I mean, the city has really helped us for this last year to be able to maintain ourselves here. A lot of families have several generations - three, four, five generations of merchants. My dad started here in 1930. So, for us it's huge. This is home."

On a Tuesday afternoon, there were some visitors to the historic marketplace, including the Moreno family visiting from Chicago. They say they were concerned that maybe Olvera Street didn't survive the pandemic, but they're happy it did.

"This was one of the things we were most looking forward to, is seeing Olvera Street and the small businesses," Diego Moreno says. "We were worried, but we're happy it's still here."

Deigo's wife, Itzel Moreno, added they wanted to bring their kids there to enjoy the marketplace.

"That's why we came here to L.A., to Los Angeles, so they can learn about their roots and their culture," she says.

Not having to pay back rent for the first six months of the year is huge, however, what about the rest of the year? The Merchants Association explains that businesses will still struggle to pay rent because tourism hasn't rebounded yet.

"We're still here, we're still open," Hanley said. "We should be having hopefully our events, maybe by the end of this year. We're hoping to have our Día de los Muertos come back."

Olvera Street will host a COVID-19 vaccine clinic to attract visitors. The kiosk is expected to reopen next month.