California Reparations Task Force Floats $223,000 Housing-Discrimination Payment for Black Residents
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The California Reparations Task Force, a nine-member panel appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom, projects that Black state residents could be eligible for as much as $223,200 per person as part of an effort to redress historical housing discrimination.
The number derives from the “housing wealth gap” Black Californians have allegedly experienced as a result of discriminatory policies in place between 1933 and 1977. The task force estimated that the policies cost black residents $5,074 per year.
The task force passed a motion in March outlining eligibility based on “an individual being an African American descendant of a chattel enslaved person or the descendant of a free Black person living in the US prior to the end of the 19th century.”
Nearly 7 percent of Californians are expected to qualify for reparations, which suggests the housing-discrimination allotment would amount to approximately $569 billion statewide.
Some, however, were disappointed with the lineage-based approach ultimately adopted by the task force, since it would potentially exclude Black immigrants, for instance. The motion split the group with 5 voting in favor and 4 against, Cal Matters reported in March.
“We must make sure we include present-day and future harms. The system that folks are advocating for here, where we splice things up, where only one small slice benefits, will not abate the harms of racism,” task-force member Lisa Holder told Cal Matters.
Tom Fitton, president of the conservative watchdog organization Judicial Watch, called the proposed payout the “nation’s biggest restitution ever” on Twitter Monday night.
The Reparations Task Force was created by Governor Newsom in the wake of nationwide racial protests that followed the murder of George Floyd in May 2020.
Governor Newsom had vetoed a bill introduced into the California State Assembly in September 2022 by Reginald Jones-Sawyer, an assemblyman and panelist member, that would have extended the task force’s deliberations and interviews an additional year until 2024.
The move will bring the Reparation Task Force’s findings to a clear resolution as it is expected to submit final recommendations by June 2023. Any recommendations the task force presents will have to be approved by the California state legislature before being enacted.
