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Q&A
SBS involvement and support for street vendors
2:11:11
·
3 min
Council Member Julie Menin expresses concern about the Small Business Services (SBS) department's inability to provide data on assistance to street vendors. The Street Vendor Project representatives criticize SBS's approach and call for more direct engagement and support for vendors.
- SVP criticizes SBS's outreach methods as ineffective and misleading
- They highlight the need for on-the-ground outreach to vendors
- SVP notes that they receive more support requests from council members than from SBS
- They call for equal funding for vendor education compared to enforcement
- SVP reports no direct collaboration with SBS for vendor outreach
Julie Menin
2:11:11
And last question that I have is related to the testimony we heard earlier from SBS because I was very troubled by SBS's apparent inability to give me a simple data point of how many small how many street vendors they've helped with SBS services.
2:11:31
So any comment on that?
2:13:32
And how many times has SBS gone out with the street vendor project to visit street vendors?
2:13:45
Okay.
2:13:46
Thank you very much for this panel.
2:14:24
Okay, thank you.
2:14:25
Thank you for your testimony.
2:14:26
We appreciate it.
Mohamed Attia
2:11:32
Yes ma'am.
2:11:33
Real quick and I can pass it to my colleagues as well.
2:11:36
I happen to be a former food vendor.
2:11:39
I was a vendor for ten years.
2:11:40
I still keep my food vendor license active, in pretty good status, and I do get the letters from the city.
2:11:46
This is a flyer that I received from SBS.
2:11:50
The first sentence of the flyer that says, We have the resources street vendors need to operate or expand.
2:11:56
Let's put expansion aside.
2:11:57
Let's just talk about operating.
2:12:00
If I need a permit, how would they help me get a permit?
2:12:02
If brother Calvin here needs a license to operate the business.
2:12:07
This is Square One.
2:12:08
If you want to start a business, Square One is to get the paperwork ready.
2:12:11
So, the flyer they are sending to the vendors is misleading.
2:12:15
If a vendor walks into their office and says, Hi, I'm selling merchandise.
2:12:20
I need the proper license and proper paperwork, they cannot help them cut the line.
2:12:24
On the other hand, mailing 22,000 of these doesn't really get you a lot of results.
2:12:31
We, as a small nonprofit, we hit the ground every single day.
2:12:35
We are 10 or maybe 11 staff members.
2:12:38
We do street outreach.
2:12:39
This is where we meet the vendors.
2:12:41
The vendors don't Google small business support.
2:12:44
They don't Google three vendor project.
2:12:46
It might happen once or twice a year, but you have to meet people where they're at.
2:12:50
On the other side, with all due respect to all my lovely council members here, more than half of them send us email requests every single week requesting outreach in their district, and we get that much support from the council.
2:13:03
Less than 20% of our budget.
2:13:05
So how can I be in 51 districts all at once educating the vendors?
2:13:09
This is not the nonprofit job.
2:13:10
This is the city job.
2:13:12
And if we are calling for $7,700,000 to the DSNY enforcement office of street vendor, let's call for $7,700,000 to create the resources for the vendors to educate them.
2:13:24
We have seen the response from the city council last month calling for 7.7 mil for the enforcement, but $0 for education.
2:13:40
As far as I know, zero times.
2:13:42
I've been involved with SVP for the last twelve years.
Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez
2:13:48
May I just add a brief update on I just want to highlight the Street Vendor Project is very grateful for the support that we do receive from the council and SBS for the work that we do.
2:13:58
We are required to report on all of our grants that we receive the location, the zip code, we have to provide photos for every meeting that we have, sign in sheets.
2:14:11
So it seems a bit hypocritical to require organizations that receive funding to do that if our city agencies are not required to do the same.
2:14:23
Thank you.