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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Mohamed Attia, Managing Director of Street Vendor Project
3:50:52
ยท
129 sec
Mohamed Attia, Managing Director of the Street Vendor Project, testified about the need for increased support and funding for street vendor education and services in New York City. He highlighted the disparity between enforcement budgets and education resources for street vendors.
- Requested support to expand community outreach, education, and small business consultation programs for street vendors
- Pointed out that the city spends about $25 on enforcement for every $1 spent on education and support for vendors
- Emphasized the growing demand for street vendor education and services, which their small team provides in seven languages
Mohamed Attia
3:50:52
Good afternoon, chair Abriu and members of the committee.
3:50:56
My name is Mohamed Atayia.
3:50:57
I'm the managing director of the Shivanda project.
3:50:59
Thanks for the opportunity to testify today.
3:51:02
The Shivanda project is a membership based organization with over 3,000 street vendors members.
3:51:07
As the only organization in New York City dedicated to serving the street vendor population in the five boroughs, SVP is the centralized hub for street vendors to access resources and receive essential services as the smallest businesses in our city.
3:51:21
We respectfully request support from the city council to expand our community outreach and education program along with a small business consultation program for the street vendors.
3:51:30
The demand for street vendor education and services continue to grow.
3:51:34
It is really important to highlight how resources are being allocated in our city.
3:51:38
As you are probably aware, the office of street vendor enforcement is housed under sanitation police, and their budget is increasing.
3:51:45
It ranges from $3,700,000 to almost $5,000,000 over the fiscal years.
3:51:51
That is really not including the NYPD, DOHMH, PARTS, and other agencies that are conducting enforcement on the street vendors.
3:52:00
Now we look at the city's allocation to pretty much the education of street vendors.
3:52:07
There is no city agency that provides support, there is no city agency sanitation, DCWP, SBS, nobody is going out to educate the vendors, only SVP, such
Joshua Goodman
3:52:17
as
Mohamed Attia
3:52:17
small nonprofit that receive roughly around $200,000 from the speakers initiative and all the individual council member support that we receive.
3:52:25
When you look at the numbers council member, it is a scale of 25 to one.
3:52:29
For every dollar the city is spending on education and support to the vendors, it spends $25 on enforcement.
3:52:38
And Our small team, as you probably know, we conduct the outreach and education program in seven different languages.
3:52:45
We really need the resources, we need to expand the work because the demand is skyrocketing right now and we really try our best to meet that demand and be in every neighborhood and every district where council members inspired.
Council Staff
3:52:58
Thank you.
Mohamed Attia
3:52:59
Thank you so much for the opportunity again to the supply.
Shaun Abreu
3:53:02
Thank you, Mohammad.