The City Council enacted three bills on Thursday that advocates say will revolutionize street vending in New York City, weeks after former Mayor Eric Adams vetoed them on his last day in office.
The Street Vendor Reform Package, consisting of Intros 431-B, 408 and 1251, are now set to shorten administrative delays and expand the cap by allowing the City to grant a potential 10,700 new general vending licenses in 2027 and adding 2,200 supervisory licenses available for food vendors every year until 2031.
However, licensure is not guaranteed and depends on the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), meaning the total number of businesses receiving new licenses could be far less.
An estimated 20,000 street vendors operate in every borough of the City, but only 6,880 food vendors and fewer than 1,000 general vendors are licensed. The City Council increased the cap for street vendor licenses five years ago, but only granted around 130 to new businesses over the course of 2025.
The waitlist to receive one of these licenses has well over 10,000 names, with many forced to wait years for their application to be approved and others denied access to even submit an application due to the short window provided.
Critics of the reform package and licensed vendors feared the expansion would lead to overcrowding, especially in already heavily foot-trafficked areas, potentially impacting their businesses. But Mohamed Attia, managing director for the non-profit the Street Vendor Project (SVP), says these vendors are already operating on the streets and that the expansion brings these businesses into the regulatory system.
“The passage of the Street Vendor Reform Package is a win for all New Yorkers. This victory honors the tens of thousands of street vendors who suffered decades of injustice, and took to the streets time and time again to stand up for their rights,” said Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, deputy director of SVP. “We are proud of the broad coalition built throughout this journey—from immigrant-rights advocates and small business associations to public-space advocacy groups—who pushed this vision across the finish line.”
Kaufman-Gutierrez and Attia spearheaded advocacy, helped organize several protests outside of City Hall in support of the reform package and reached out to unlicensed vendors to educate them on the rules and regulations. The newly created Division of Street Vendor Assistance, within the Department of Small Business Services (SBS), would take over that duty and educate new street vendors on both city code and food safety standards, reducing the need for Department of Sanitation (DSNY) enforcement.
“Street vendors provide some of the most affordable options for New Yorkers facing an increasingly unaffordable city, and by vetoing the street vendor reform package on his way out the door, the former mayor denied New York City’s smallest businesses the support they need to survive and thrive,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, one of the bill’s co-sponsors. “In speaking with vendors about the barriers they face, it’s clear we can do more, and an office dedicated to street vendor assistance – which my bill creates – will help these entrepreneurs navigate obstacles to licensing, inconsistency in enforcement, and regulations that make it near-impossible to operate in a successful and sustained way.”
Currently, DSNY operates with uniformed officers who confiscate unlicensed vendors’ food or wares. Intro. 431-B aims to balance incentives with enforcement by adding new mandatory suspension and license revocation language to the system, ultimately reducing the need for large-scale intervention and saving the city up to $59 million annually, according to the Independent Budget Office.
While many are still unsure about the package’s overall impact to the businesses that line our streets — including Intro. 431-B’s sponsor, Bronx Council Member Pierina Ana Sanchez, who stated “implementation won’t be easy” — street vendors and their advocates celebrated the final passage as a “historic vote” for the city.
