Las Vegas nonprofit’s latest project aims to help street vendors

Vendors set up shop on the streets each day as a means to provide for their family, but it’s not an easy job. One Las Vegas-based nonprofit is trying to ease their stress.

Make the Road Nevada started offering support services to street vendors since early this year through a new initiative dubbed “Eros Project.”

The name comes from the Spanish translation for certain street vendors. Ice cream vendors are paleteros; corn snack vendors are called eloteros; and car wash vendors are called lavederos — all three sharing the same suffix “eros,” which lends itself to the project’s name.

“Our mission is to provide a space in the community to talk about what street vendors are dealing with on a day-to-day basis,” said Jose Rivera, environmental justice organizer at Make the Road Nevada. “My main goal with the project is to provide all sorts of resources available.”

The organization helps working-class and immigrant communities by providing resources, and Eros Project is another way for it to offer aid such as access to banking services and more recently, care packages.

“The street vendors that I have met do not have social security numbers, so they’re kind of afraid to even go to a bank to apply for a bank account,” said Rivera. “To relieve that stress, I decided to take it upon me to be able to partner with local credit unions.”

The Eros Project is partnered with CSE Credit Union and allows vendors to establish a bank account with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, available for those who can’t retrieve a social security number. The nonprofit also helps vendors create accounts with online payment apps such as Zelle and Cash App, which doesn’t require a bank account to make transactions.

Rivera has been able to work with 39 street vendors, including Mary Madrigal, 41, who owns a mobile car detailing service.

Two months ago, Madrigal was approached by Rivera, who was offering resources from the Eros Project.

“They were parked in the street to start washing,” said Madrigal. “[Rivera] saw them and approached them, and that’s how I started with them.”

Rivera said when he first met Madrigal she was pouring water on the asphalt and wore thick clothing. The water helped create a cool breeze in the intense heat, and the thick clothing helped prevent against any heat sickness.

“He has beverages for us because it gets too hot out there,” said Madrigal. “He’s helped with phone numbers to bring business, and Jose has these papers where we can write down our business (name) and number to get clients.”

Recently, the project has been putting together care packages for vendors to help them beat the heat. The care packages include solar shirts, beverages, sunscreen, sunglasses and other items that help reduce heat-related issues.

“There’s parts in our communities that are 15 to 20 degrees hotter than other areas due to the lack of resources,” said Rivera. “The places that I go visit there’s less shade, there’s less trees, there’s more asphalt. And so, these folks are being affected, health-wise.”

“I’ve met a street vendor who says she could barely pay for rent. … She doesn’t have AC at home,” he said. “So I try to promote inclusivity when it comes to environmental justice and other issues as well.”

Rivera hopes to do more outreach throughout the Valley.

“I want to do so much more like collaborate with other organizations who would like to work with me to expand the resource list,” he said. “I want to provide stuff, workshops to help with their housing questions or health equity questions, all sorts of that stuff.”

Contact Emerson Drewes at edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes on Twitter. Review-Journal intern Jimmy Romo contributed to this report.