San Francisco Reparations Committee Recommends Paying $5 Million to Black Residents, Supplementing Income for 250 Years
A San Francisco advisory committee has recommended paying out hefty reparations to the city’s longtime black residents, including a $5 million payment per qualifying person and a supplemental income to low-income residents for 250 years.
The city’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee released a draft report last month claiming that San Francisco’s “international reputation as a shining progressive gem in the west is undermined by its legacy of mistreatment, violence towards, and targeted racism against Black Americans.”
“While neither San Francisco, nor California, formally adopted the institution of chattel slavery, the values of segregation, white supremacy and systematic repression and exclusion of Black people were legally codified and enforced,” the group wrote.
As such, the committee proposed the city make a lump sum payment of $5 million to black residents who are at least 18 and have identified as black or African American on public documents for at least ten years. Residents must also meet at least two of eight other requirements. Among those requirements is that the resident is “personally, or the direct descendant of someone, incarcerated by the failed War on Drugs” or is a “Descendant of someone enslaved through US chattel slavery before 1865.”
“A lump sum payment would compensate the affected population for the decades of harms that they have experienced, and will redress the economic and opportunity losses that Black San Franciscans have endured, collectively, as the result of both intentional decisions and unintended harms perpetuated by City policy,” the committee said.
The group also suggested that the city supplement lower-income recipients’ incomes to meet the Area Median Income (AMI) of about $97,000, for at least 250 years.
The panel released a lengthy list of recommendations, another of which was to create a “a comprehensive debt forgiveness program” for black residents to cancel student loans, housing loans, and credit card debt in an effort to give “Black households an opportunity to build wealth.”
The report also suggests that the city offer financial compensation for families affected by “education harms” on black students, though it does not include specifics.
Other proposals include allowing black residents who are eligible for reparations to receive first choice of subsidized rental units and prioritizing “members of San Francisco’s current and past African American communities for employment opportunities, training programs, professional certification, partnerships and contracting.”
The report suggests the city and county of San Francisco and the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development should offer black homeowners grants for home maintenance and repair costs.
The group is set to submit its final proposal in June.
