Caridad Vasquez has lived in Los Angeles for 25 years, and sold Mexican food in Boyle Heights for 15 years, but she says she’s never seen anything like the citywide shutdown that the last few weeks have brought.
City leaders effectively put a moratorium on street vending last week, and even before that, many vendors like Vasquez were losing customers as Angelenos increasingly avoided contact with one another and stayed indoors.
With April 1 around the corner, Vasquez, who is 60 years old, says she is growing increasingly worried about herself and other street vendors.
“We’re not going to be able to pay the rent,” Vasquez says, speaking in Spanish.
If she’s safer at home and isn’t supposed to vend, she says: “Where is that money going to come from?”
In the past, community organizing group Inclusive Action for the City has helped street vendors and other “micro-entrepreneurs” by offering small loans and advocating for the legalization of street vending.
The crisis brewing around COVID-19 has changed the way the organization approaches its work. It’s finding new ways to support vendors fearing or facing eviction from their homes and the spaces where they do business, says Inclusive Action executive director Rudy Espinosa.
Inclusive Action is one of close to 200 organizations and groups that are now backing the list of demands laid out by a collective called HealthyLA.
HealthyLA’s vision is for “a strong moratorium on evictions,” rent forgiveness, mortgage suspensions, a residential and commercial rent freeze, paid sick leave, and handwashing stations, showers, and other hygiene support “at every informal settlement” of unhoused people.
The coalition formed about two weeks ago, when a few groups, including Alliance for Community Transit-Los Angeles, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, and LA Voice, were convened by Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin, who wanted their input on his proposed eviction protections and other COVID-19-related relief he would be introducing.
The groups decided to connect on their own beforehand to discuss what issues they’d push for. Bonin and other councilmembers ultimately proposed some of their policy recommendations—but not all of them.
Last week, the council advanced a measure that bans landlords from evicting commercial and residential tenants impacted by COVID-19. Some councilmembers, including Bonin, had wanted that measure to go farther than the eviction moratorium Mayor Eric Garcetti already put in place, but a draft ordinance released today by the city attorney’s office very closely mirrors what the mayor has already done.
Under the the mayor’s moratorium, landlords are barred from evicting tenants who have not paid rent due to COVID-19-related loss of income. The measure also gives tenants six months to repay any rent they owe.
Now there are groups from every council district coming together under the HealthyLA banner, and they’re demanding councilmembers do more to help renters, workers, and the homeless population.
“We knew that... we were going to have to continue pushing to get more of our demands met,” Huerta Jones says.
A street vendor leader with the group Vendedores en Acción, Vasquez says she relies on street vending as her sole source of income. She lives with her daughter, and both of them usually contribute to the rent. Her daughter works in a restaurant and has seen her hours cut; she will also not be able to contribute the amount she normally would.
The mayor’s eviction moratorium requires renters to prove that they were impacted. Vasquez doesn’t know how she’s going to do that.
There’s no official list of the types of documents that suffice as proof, but suggestions from the city’s housing department includes pay stubs and bank statements—paperwork which vendors and other undocumented Angelenos don’t always have.
Huerta Jones says a lot of the demands the collective is making are issues that the city should have addressed “months, if not years ago,” such as rapidly housing homeless residents and aggressively acting to stem evictions.
“I think they’re starting to feel that pressure,” she says.
Comments
For cryin’ out loud: NOBODY IS GETTING EVICTED!!!
Probably for at least 3 months. If people want to play on the fears of the less fortunate then that’s cool (as in, within their rights), but it ain’t woke. It’s sleazy.
This crisis has not played out yet. Take your Trump Check, apply for emergency UI benefits and STFU! (that’s ‘Stay The F*** Home’).
By LosFeliz$ean on 03.26.20 2:59pm
I agree. At this point, we can say with certainty that no one will be evicted in the immediate future. Notably, the courts are closed. We are in the middle of an unprecedented crisis. The issue will be worked out with a bit of time. Rather than provide helpful information, articles like this just ratchet up anxiety.
Curbed staff… please also stop giving credence to the idea of rent "forgiveness." People will eventually be required to pay their rent. There is no way around this fact unless the government steps up and fills the payment void.
By TopWeinerDog on 03.26.20 4:06pm
The hard truth is landlords aren’t going to get back pay
By lolol0lolol on 03.26.20 5:51pm
Then there will be evictions…eventually
By Logicthinktank on 03.27.20 8:18am
Never going to happen. You can’t evict half the city.
By lolol0lolol on 03.27.20 8:22am
Landlords will evict the tenants they don’t like, and work it out with tenants that they do like. But there will absolutely be lots of evictions.
By LADude on 03.27.20 9:52am
Everyone is going to get a check or unemployment so there is no reason to expect half the city won’t be paying rent. If you earn more than the cutoff for assistance then the government assumes you have sufficient cash reserves to afford things like rent even in a downturn.
If you are right and half the tenants don’t pay and pocket the money instead, those people will be getting evicted. In court, the judge will want to know what they did with the government cash they received or, if high income, why they mismanaged their money so badly. The judge isn’t going to buy "I couldn’t pay the rent even though my household got $2,400 from the government because I had a $500 lease payment due on my BMW". Judgments will go in favor of the landlord, the tenants will be out and have to pay. If they don’t pay they will have a ding on their credit score and an eviction on their record.
By calzada on 03.27.20 6:53pm
No government – local, state or federal – can force a landlord to offer rent forgiveness. A moratorium on evictions is one thing, forcing forgiveness would be an unfair taking under the US constitution. If they did that landlords would simply stop paying utilities and property taxes. Think about what that would do to state and city budgets.
There would be a huge lawsuit and the landlords would win because the non-payment of taxes was caused by the unfair (and illegal) taking of the rental income.
By calzada on 03.27.20 6:59pm
where’s mrjim? i think it’s been 3 days since he hasn’t been the first comment.
By cicinla on 03.26.20 7:03pm
$ean-They obviously know they are not getting evicted in the immediate future. The further demands are ultimately for complete rent forgiveness during this time and not to repay in 6 months.
By Ravid Dyu on 03.26.20 3:55pm
this is why it’s better to work for a large corporation although that sucks on a lot of levels too. but at least you have some protections when you get fired etc. being a gig self employed person has a lot of downsides
By LAoneWay on 03.26.20 4:56pm
Actually, they can be evicted. There has been a moratorium on evictions BUT the courts will still accept eviction filings. Once that happens, it is up to the tenant to reply within the 3-day deadline to prove they cannot pay because of Covid-19. They would then need to find/go to the correct agency and report. That agency would then contact the landlord and "ask" them not to proceed.
The landlord can indeed proceed.
The actual court case will probably be kicked down the road and the actual eviction by Sheriff will be kicked down the road, BUT the process will still continue.
This still sucks for the tenant and landlord who may not be able to pay mortgage. There needs to be financial relief that is paid on behalf of the tenant to the landlord.
By CodyAmore on 03.26.20 5:01pm
The. Courts. Are. Closed.
Local, state and Federal eviction protections have already been or are about to be enacted. Nobody is getting evicted.
By LosFeliz$ean on 03.26.20 5:03pm
Dude, if you live pay check to pay check (which given your intense insensitivity, clearly you do not), you would understand that you will never be able to make that money you owe up when all of this is over.
By NohoGuy on 03.26.20 5:15pm
Then… the tenant shouldn’t be living in that apartment based on their income and spending. The gov seriously needs to require mandatory savings for ppl. 10-15% of income automatically put into a 401k-like account that can be used for rainy days (unemployment, emergency health issues, etc.). Many inefficient social programs could be shuttered or reduced if savings were mandatory.
By Constituents on 03.26.20 6:32pm
This is a terrible goddamn idea.
By Greyvagabond on 03.26.20 10:27pm
You say that’s a terrible idea…and yet that is pretty much what social security is for once you turn 65. So you are saying social security is a terrible idea?
By LADude on 03.26.20 10:58pm
Yes, both are terrible ideas abdicating responsibility from adults that should be forced to figure out how to manage their own lives
By Logicthinktank on 03.27.20 8:20am
People who get social security after the age of 65 have PAID into the system for years.
By LATEACHER1X on 03.27.20 12:40pm
You’re basically talking about taxes that are then used for unemployment insurance, but instead of paying into a general fund to pay for a social safety net, every person is self-insuring for unemployment.
By Greyvagabond on 03.27.20 4:44pm
better yet the government should offer low cost vasectomies or tube tying. that might solve a lot of problems
By LAoneWay on 03.27.20 5:31am
Maybe a higher minimum wage and corporations that don’t pay CEO’s 300% of what the average employee makes would help too.
By WilliamCWallace on 03.27.20 11:36am
Common sense has no place in reality these days.
By LATEACHER1X on 03.27.20 12:40pm
If only it were 300%! CEOs make 36,100% (361 times) the median company employee salary, according to a 2018 Forbes article.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianahembree/2018/05/22/ceo-pay-skyrockets-to-361-times-that-of-the-average-worker/#9346f04776dd
It is grotesquely unfair and a clear indication of our grossly unbalanced society.
By heyeug on 03.27.20 1:06pm
If the government wants to help the renters then they need to bail them out like they do for banks and the rich Wall Streeters. Why aren’t they giving them more money so they can pay their bills and cover their losses too! They are the ones’ who insisted on allowing street vendors and then gave them no protections. What did they think would happen. Are government workers taking a pay cut? Is Bonehead Bonin getting paid less in this crisis? Are they going to forgive property taxes or suspend sales taxes? Our greedy city counsel is always looking for a fall guy to blame and pay for their mistakes. If they had focused on attracting businesses instead of taxing and regulating businesses out of this state we wouldn’t have this problem. We need to get rid of these do nothing, self serving, finger pointing administrators and get them out of office. They wanted a sanctuary city now ask them how are they going to pay for it, with your money? Basta! Oh yeah remember Basta?
By straightfromla on 03.26.20 5:19pm