Mamdani budget proposal would invest $20 million in NYC street vendors

More than $20 million would go toward supporting street vendors as part of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recently released executive budget proposal, a breakthrough for Council member Pierina Sanchez and thousands of vendors across the city who struggled to obtain licenses. 

Sanchez, whose district includes parts of Kingsbridge and Kingsbridge Heights, helped champion a package of vendor bills that was vetoed by former mayor Eric Adams, but ultimately pushed forward by the City Council earlier this year, marking a victory for a decades-long movement to balance vendor demand with the number of legal licenses. Under Mamdani’s proposed budget, the measures in the bills would have the funding they need to become a reality.

The Street Vendor Project, part of nonprofit Urban Justice Center, played a key role in recent advocacy. Managing director Mohamed Attia, a street vendor himself for nearly a decade, has been fighting since 2012 for improvements to the system.

A handful of city departments are involved in the licensing process, and the $20.5 million would be allocated between them, the Street Vendor Project said. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene would receive the most substantial amount at $14.8 million, followed by $3.62 to the Department of Small Business Services, $2.15 to the Department of Sanitation and $250,000 to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, according to the Street Vendor Project.

The bill package added 2,200 new food vending licenses annually through 2031, and will add 10,500 general vending licenses next year. It also established a division of the Department of Small Business Services called the Office of Street Vendor Services to support and educate vendors.

Without licenses, vendors are “operating in the shadows,” Sanchez told The Press. She said the street vendors in her district aren’t a monolith. Some are pushing the city’s rules with little regard, but for others, whether vending is to supplement their income or the primary source to pay rent and feed their families, city scrutiny is detrimental.

“Enforcement actions that we’re seeing right now are overly broad,” Sanchez said, emphasizing the importance of bringing the “city’s smallest businesses” into compliance. “They’re just really hurting. There’s a lot of fear, there’s a lot of pain, there’s a lot of lost income. We really just need to get this right as quickly as possible.”

Waitlists for food vendor licenses were more than 10,000 applicants, and nearly 12,000 applicants for general vendor license applications, according to a 2025 release from Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. The issue arose more than 40 years ago when the city capped food and general licenses, making way for a permit black market. There was brief progress made in 2021 when a law was passed that added 445 new licenses annually, but it was far short of the demand, Williams said at the time.

Attia said when he was a vendor, a permit from the underground market was going for up to $25,000. He said the funding from the mayor’s office, and the feeling that an administration is supportive, is a “historic” moment for street vendors. He added he hopes the way the money is dispersed within city agencies is balanced between enforcement, licensing, education and outreach.

“[Vendors] deserve the investment in them, just like any other small business, to make sure they not only survive in our city, but we want to see them thriving,” Attia said. “We want to see them really living the American dream just the same way any other communities and any other businesses would have.”

Attia is an immigrant, an identity shared by 96 percent of the city’s 23,000 street vendors, according to the Immigration Research Initiative. Attia came to the states from Alexandria, Egypt in 2008.

A spokesperson for the Department of Small Business Services said in a statement the Office of Street Vendor Services is advancing economic justice by “serving as a central hub for citywide street vendor education.”

“Together with street vendors, interagency partners, community-based organizations and local stakeholders at the table, the Office of Street Vendor Services is building a more vibrant and equitable street vending ecosystem across the five boroughs,” the spokesperson said.