Los Angeles City Council votes to suspend citations to street vendors without permits

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday voted to re-establish a moratorium on issuing citations to street vendors who do not have a valid license or permit.

The moratorium will remain in place for the remainder of the COVID-19 State of Emergency and six months after that. Tuesday's vote also instructed the Bureau of Street Services to conduct education and outreach campaigns to guide street vendors through the permit process.

Many vendors have had rallies calling on the city to put a moratorium on code enforcement. The vote comes after recent reports of health officials being accompanied by police and throwing away food and confiscating equipment.

L.A. established an enforcement moratorium against unpermitted street vendors after it legalized street vending in 2018.

It was designed to allow vendors to obtain permits before being cited, but the moratorium was lifted by the City Council at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

LA street vendors describe challenges to acquiring permits after their food is thrown out

Street vendors watched and recorded as L.A. County Public Health employees threw away their food merchandise because they did not have the correct permits.

When the moratorium was lifted, less than 1% of vendors -- 90 out of 10,000 in Los Angeles County -- had obtained a permit, according to the motion, which was introduced by Councilwoman Nithya Raman and Councilman Curren Price.

"COVID-19 has been an incredible blow to our city's small businesses and entrepreneurs -- L.A.'s street food vendors are no exception," Raman said.

"Enforcing permits for street vendors without allowing for implementation of a just and streamlined permitting process puts livelihoods in peril."

In the motion, Price and Raman noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, outdoor street vending is by nature safer for consumers than indoor or outdoor seated dining.

Additionally, because many street vendors in the area are in the U.S. without authorization, they are not eligible for relief funds by the federal government and rely on income brought in by street vending to feed their family and stay housed.

City News Service contributed to this report.