Mission District street food vendors say new regulations drafted by the Department of Public Health could run them out of business.
“Our community is already living with so much uncertainty, costs have risen and our stability is fragile,” said Rosi Villanueva, a member of the food vendors committee, in Spanish. Villanueva was one of two dozen street-food vendors who gathered Tuesday for a rally at the 24th Street BART station.
The new regulations were prompted by state legislation that passed in 2022, SB 972, which essentially decriminalized food vending in California. The law was meant to bring street food vendors, many of whom are immigrants, out of the shadows and into a position where they could operate openly as permitted food vendors.
Although SB 972 went into effect three years ago, San Francisco is only now putting in place regulations to come into compliance.
But the new regulations, members of the food vendors committee said, will cost them thousands of dollars. The most costly changes include obtaining a pushcart with a washing station and doing most cooking at a certified commissary kitchen. Vendors estimated those additions alone would cost as much as $40,000.
Villanueva, who sells snacks at 24th and Mission, said her profit margins were too small to afford such changes. “The carts they’re asking for are too expensive,” said Villanueva. “We just don’t have the resources.”
Villanueva and the other vendors took over a section of the southwest 24th Street BART plaza on Tuesday morning ahead of a meeting on Wednesday during which the Department of Public Health will present the new regulations to the Board of Supervisors budget and finance committee.
“We need collaboration and certainty right now. We need answers,” said Andrea Guirola, in Spanish. “We need the support from the city. We need the support from BART and any other organization willing to help us because we contribute to the economy of this country.”
At the rally, street-food vendors said that they do not oppose regulation, and have followed previous standards for obtaining vending permits. Instead, they are asking the city to adopt a different plan that would allow residents to do small scale food operations from their own homes rather than a commissary kitchen.
Nearby counties like Santa Cruz, Monterrey, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Alameda, San Mateo and Contra Costa follow the plan, known as the Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations (MEHKO).
That microenterprise plan would allow vendors to comply with state law, without significant new expenses. There is a way for vendors to get a permit under that system, while still using a home kitchen.
“MEHKO is actually a part of the state plan,” said Leila Ovando, from Nuestra Causa, a Mission District nonprofit that works on political education and civic engagement.
At the rally, vendors also called on city leaders for financial support to help street food vendors comply with the new regulations. An example to follow, they said, is the city of Los Angeles. After adopting its ordinance, Los Angeles launched a $2.8 million dollar vending cart program designed to help street vendors obtain new carts.
The Board of Supervisors budget and finance committee will hear from the Department of Public Health and the public on Wednesday, leading up to a committee vote on the proposed regulations on Feb. 11.
The full Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the regulations late this month or early March.
There’s not a single reason to exempt any one food vendor (e.g
street vendor) from any code that any other food vendor (e.g. storefront vendor) must follow.
“The law was meant to bring street food vendors — many of whom are immigrants — out of the shadows and into a position where they could operate openly as permitted food vendors.”
Of note, that didn’t really happen. What we got instead is these fellows turning sausages on the corner indebted and repressed by mobster cartels that took over. Who, in the process, bullied established vendors out of existence.
That’s why you need permanent Police Koban there,
We had Foot Patrols as the essential way to deploy cops in this town from 1880 to 1960 and the Kobans were essentially a turnaround station for a 3 Officer per shift Station.
Go all the way back to single officer deployment and that would be 9 cops who between them would quickly know every vendor and every scam artist in the neighborhood.
All you have to do is to get Mayor Lurie or 4 Supes to put Elect our Police Chief on the ballot and every candidate would talk about the good old times their father talked about or grandfather talked about knowing every person on their beat.
There should be permanent Vendor Spaces at the BART stops and around the Armory and with 3 cops walking around those stalls the gangsters would go away.
go Sam Darnold !!
h.
What makes them so special, they don’t have to put up with the government over reach we all have to suffer with? I had the planning dept. extort me with $250 a day fines to try and force me to sign a deed restriction. Welcome to the real America, suckers.
Let them cook from home.
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Identify any cartel involvement.
Catch and prosecute THEM to the fullest extent.
You do realize these people are using food stamps to buy these goods they then inflate the cost of and flip, right? It’s fraud, and represents the reality these people are just taking advantage of gullible suckers.
Don’t make things too hard for street food vendors, they’re a valuable resource for San Franciscans.
Can a restaurant now meet the same regulations (lowered) as a street food “vendor”? Can a restaurant now prepare food in home kitchens? Can a corner store (a valuable resource) now start selling prepared food that they make at home – or in the back of the store without hand washing facilities?