Sidewalk Vendor Program Transforms Immigrant Lives

Immigrant and Refugee Support

San Fernando Valley

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

Very low-income immigrants from Central and South America living in the San Fernando Valley face significant challenges to lifting themselves and their families out of poverty and gaining an equal economic footing with other residents of the region. These immigrants (both men and women) often gravitate toward work as sidewalk vendors. Many of these vendors speak Spanish only and have limited formal educations, are often comprised of not lawful permanent residents, and have annual household incomes under $50,000 (with 44% under $17,000, far below the LA County poverty line). According to the 2021 U.S. Census, 43.1% of the residents of Pacoima and 51.6% of residents of Panorama City (both Valley communities) were not born in the United States. The majority of sidewalk vendors risk selling food or merchandise on the street without permits because they do not have legal residency status in the US, and thus cannot obtain mainstream employment to support their families.

ICON CDC's Sidewalk Vendor Program assists aspiring and current vendors living in underserved and mainly Hispanic regions of the San Fernando Valley to own food/merchandise carts or expand their operations. Vendor training provides knowledge for starting, building or maintaining a small business and unique tips for overcoming barriers to manage a sidewalk business, combining one-on-one consultations focused on specific client needs with workshops on subjects such as bookkeeping and developing an entrepreneurial mindset. Program materials are designed to be highly accessible for people with little or no business education, with all services and materials provided in Spanish and English but open to everyone. ICON CDC aids vendors in obtaining permits and licenses to run their enterprises legally and safely as well as support for expanding their businesses (such as by purchasing food carts or opening storefront locations). Based on ICON CDC's 22 years of experience serving local businesses, this mix of services is highly effective at meeting the needs of underserved entrepreneurs. ICON CDC's services allow vendors and their families to prosper economically, reducing income inequality in the region. This program uniquely serves the region by allowing vendors to expand the diversity of services available to populations from Central and South America within the Hispanic community. LA 2050 funding will support a grant program to assist 15 vendors with purchasing new food carts.

This program has the potential during the grant period to accelerate its growth (in part through supplying grants to purchase food carts) into an even more trusted path to financial success for thousands of Hispanic immigrants in the San Fernando Valley. The program will guide aspiring and current sidewalk vendors to run their businesses profitably, legally and safely, and to take concrete steps to expand their operations. In the long term, ICON CDC sees potential for utilizing LA 2050 resources and collaborating with community members as well as government agencies in order to scale the program to serve additional immigrant populations in other regions of Los Angeles County, helping to train partner organizations in one-on-one consulting methods, and adapting workshops to accommodate different languages and diverse populations. This will allow even more immigrants and other underserved aspiring and current entrepreneurs to open businesses and gain greater financial stability.

The Sidewalk Vendor Program in 2022 provided 549 vendors with workshops, 110 business owners with one-on-one training, and 3 clients with grants to support their businesses. Along with these measures, the success of this program at meeting specific needs of individual clients is reflected in the stories of Matilde, an immigrant sidewalk vendor who received entrepreneurial training and assistance with obtaining licenses and permits that have allowed her to purchase a new tamale cart and operate it legally while maintaining a schedule that enables her to raise her son and meet monthly expenses; Yuri, who is transferring her experience working on a fruit cart to owning her own cart, learning to obtain needed permits as well as restaurant-quality supplies at a discount, and developing her own distinctive branding; and Ashly, who with ICON CDC support is developing a business plan to expand her tamale cart into a Guatemalan restaurant, supplying a cuisine not commonly found in Los Angeles.