For decades, street vendors hoping to sell food and merchandise in New York City have faced a seemingly insurmountable challenge: getting the authorization they need to operate legally. With demand for permits far outpacing supply, many vendors have risked fines and run-ins with immigration authorities, and some have rented permits illegally.
There are an estimated 20,000 street vendors in New York, but only 6,880 permits for food vendors and 853 licenses for general vendors, according to the Street Vendor Project, an advocacy group.
On Thursday, the City Council is expected to pass a landmark bill that would lift the caps on permits and licenses. By 2031, there would be nearly 17,000 permits available for food vendors, nearly 1,300 of them for veterans and disabled people. The limit on licenses for general vendors would increase to more than 11,000 by 2027.
Councilwoman Pierina Sanchez of the Bronx, a Democrat who sponsored the bill, said she had felt moved to act because she personally understood the plight of street vendors: Her grandfather sold oranges well into his 90s in Washington Heights in Manhattan and her father sold goods on Fordham Road in the Bronx.
“The street vending community is very near and dear to me,” Ms. Sanchez said. “It’s a part of my DNA.”
Currently in the city, 75 percent of food vendors lack permits and 37 percent of merchandise vendors are unlicensed, according to the Immigration Research Initiative. Food vendors are required to have licenses for themselves and permits for their carts and trucks. The waiting list for permits has more than 10,000 applicants and has not accepted new names since 2016, according to the Street Vendor Project.
The Council is also expected to vote on two related bills on Thursday. One would create a Division of Street Vendor Assistance within the Department of Small Business Services to train vendors and educate them about city resources.
The other would speed up distribution of license applications to those on the waiting list. It would require the city to make 2,200 food-vendor applications available every year from 2026 through 2031 and 10,500 general-vending applications available in 2027.
Calvin Baker, 63, who sells jewelry and accessories on the street in Harlem, said he first tried to join the waiting list 32 years ago and tried again recently without success. When he sought to apply in person at a city licensing center, he said, a woman handed him a piece of paper with instructions to call a number.
“What she is actually saying is that I’m not going to get on the list, because there’s no room for me and the list is not open,” he recalled telling other vendors during a rally at the licensing center.
Thursday’s moves are the latest effort to reform a permitting system that has changed little in decades even as the number of vendors has grown. The city capped general vendor licenses at 853 in 1979, and food vendors were limited to 3,000 total permits in 1983. According to a new report from Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, some vendors spend thousands of dollars to illegally rent permits from people who received them many years earlier.
In 2021, the City Council mandated the issuance of 445 permits every year for a decade and created rules to prevent the reselling of cart permits.
The Council also passed legislation in September to decriminalize vending without a license, making vendors subject only to fines rather than misdemeanor penalties.
Some residents have complained about widespread vending on New York’s crowded streets, raising concerns about congestion and cleanliness. Ms. Sanchez, the Bronx councilwoman, argued that vendors are an asset to neighborhoods.
“They’re making our community safer, more vibrant by being out there, by interacting with people, by saying hi to kids on the streets,” she said.
Ms. Sanchez said the larger issue was that unlicensed vendors are vulnerable to having their items thrown out and being targeted by armed officials.
In recent months, the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has sown anxiety in neighborhoods like Corona, Queens, home to many undocumented people. Vendors selling produce and merchandise in Corona Plaza, the site of a recent police crackdown on unlicensed vending, have forgone working to avoid raids by federal agents, which have sometimes focused on vendors.
Cleo, 44, a street vendor in Corona, sells dishes from her native Puebla, Mexico, like boat-shaped chalupas, to support her three children. She asked to be identified only by her first name because she fears enforcement by the authorities.
She said she works in constant fear after being told by police officers to leave her post or have her goods discarded. She said she often heard people shouting to warn other vendors of the police or of trucks passing by to surveil them.
Cleo said the legislation would give vendors the legitimacy needed to work freely.
“It would be a light in our path for the first time,” she said, “for those of us who have watched the wait-list move so slowly over many years, or are not even able to get on the list.”
Critics of raising the cap said it would lead to more unlicensed vendors selling in unlawful locations, potentially creating chaotic scenes.
“It makes no sense to add to the volume of conditions that in their current state you cannot regulate or control,” said Barbara Blair, president of the Garment District Alliance, an organization of business leaders in Midtown Manhattan. “We have already lost control of what occurs in our public realm.”
Jeffrey LeFrancois, co-chair of the New York City Business Improvement District Association, said there needed to be a balance between supporting vendors and setting clear, practical rules.
In response to opponents’ concerns, Ms. Sanchez noted that her bill would increase the share of enforcement agents who inspect vending setups. It would also increase civil penalties for certain violations and require vendors to keep the areas around their carts clean.
Mohamed Attia, the managing director of the Street Vendor Project, called the bills a win for the city and said his group would focus on ensuring that the laws’ provisions are carried out efficiently during the next mayoral administration.
“It’s frustrating for the vendors to wait 38 years for a local law to pass back in 2021, only to have the new administration over the last four years drag their feet,” Mr. Attia said.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who takes office Jan. 1, highlighted the struggles of street vendors during his campaign. In a widely shared video recorded in Manhattan last winter, Mr. Mamdani described how the city’s permitting process was driving “halalflation.”
Wageh Habib, 58, who has been a halal food vendor in Manhattan for nearly 20 years, said the new bills would give him a chance to have full control over his business.
“I would be so happy,” Mr. Habib said. “I would feel like I’m owning something.”
Samantha Latson is a Times reporter covering New York City and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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