San Francisco Reparations Committee Proposes $5 Million Lump-Sum Payment, Debt Forgiveness To Qualified Black Residents

Last month, a San Francisco reparations committee presented a plan to city officials that would pay $5 million each to longtime black residents in the Northern California metropolitan area. It also grants total debt forgiveness for those who have faced decades of financial hardship. “systematic repression.”

Just before the new year, the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee presented the report to Board of Supervisors. This report addresses public policies that were created. “subjugate” Black residents of the Bay Area city. It includes a list financial compensation such as the $5 million lump-sum reparations payment to each eligible person.

“Centuries of harm and destruction of Black lives, Black bodies, and Black communities should be met with centuries of repair,” Eric McDonnell is the chair of the committee. The San Francisco Chronicle. “If you look at San Francisco, it’s very much a tale of two cities.”

McDowell is joined by 15 other members of the panel, which was established in 2021 by city officials.

Such residents who qualify for the payment must meet at least two criteria from a list of requirements, which include applicants to be at least 18 years old at the time the city enacts the committee’s proposal, have identified as black or African American on public documents for at least ten years, and prove they were born in the city between 1940 and 1996.

Other requirements from the report include residents that have lived in San Francisco for at least 13 years or personally been incarcerated — or the direct descendant of someone imprisoned — during the War on Drugs, which U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon declared it in 1971.

According to the report, African-Americans earning less than $97,000 per year would receive additional benefits for at least 250-years.

“Racial disparities across all metrics have led to a significant racial wealth gap in the City of San Francisco,” It claims. “By elevating income to match AMI, Black people can better afford housing and achieve a better quality of life.”

The U.S. Census Bureau shows black residents total about 5.7% of the city’s population.

The Chronicle reported the belief that about $569 billion is owed to black Californians by state reparations task forces for housing discrimination in California between 1933-1977.

Tinisch Hollins, the committee’s vice chair, told the outlet the reparations would “quantify that harm” From policies that the city adopted “touch on the legacy of slavery.”

According to the report, San Francisco and California did not adopt the institution of segregation, white supremacy or systematic repression. They also excluded Black people through the legal process or chattel slavery. This allowed for the purchasing, selling and owning human beings forever.

Aaron Peskin, president of the Board of Supervisors said that he hoped his colleagues would approve of the plan.

“There are so many efforts that result in incredible reports that just end up gathering dust on a shelf,” Peskin spoke. “We cannot let this be one of them.”

Mayor London Breed, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, San Francisco Human Rights Commission, and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will all review the final proposal in June.