The Street Vendor Emergency Fund

Inclusive Action for the City is a community development nonprofit based in Los Angeles whose mission is to bring people together to build strong, local economies that uplift low-income urban communities through advocacy and transformative economic development initiatives. 

Inclusive Action is one of the co-founders of the LA Street Vendor Campaign, the effort that legalized street vending in Los Angeles and helped decriminalize street vending in California. For the last 4 years, it has also focused on providing low-interest loans and business coaching to street vendors and other small business owners who can't access capital from traditional institutions. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic began impacting our communities, we quickly saw that all the data about income inequality was right: most people don’t have any savings to cover their household expenses in an emergency. Many small businesses operate with only enough cash on hand to last them 27 days. We heard this loud and clear from the street vendors we’ve worked with for over a decade. Street vendors who participate in our micro-loan program and those that are involved in the LA Street Vendor Campaign saw their business revenue dissolve almost over night. And new policies in LA banned most street vending as a result of COVID-19.

This is why we started an emergency fund to provide direct cash assistance to LA street vendors who are financially struggling as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak in Los Angeles. 

Through your donation, we will be able to disburse $400 directly to the street vendors who are affected. These funds will help them pay rent, purchase groceries, and supplement the loss they are seeming from less foot traffic or having to be quarantined at home. These resources are delivered on pre-loaded Mastercards that give recipients immediate access to their funds.

The Street Vendor Emergency Fund is led by a committee of 3 vendor leaders, a representative from Inclusive Action and Community Power Collective that work together to administer the fund. We have conducted outreach and provided the application to street vendors who have been impacted and together will process each application received. 

This Fund is organized by the founders of the LA Street Vendor Campaign: Community Power Collective, East LA Community Corporation, Inclusive Action, and Public Counsel.

If you know a street vendor that needs support, direct them to email [email redacted].

(The application window is currently closed until we can raise more resources. Read the updates below!)