The suburb of Evanston, Illinois, in Chicago, became the first U.S. city to approve a repair program for its black residents Monday night, following an 8-1 city council vote.
“It is, in itself, insufficient,” Ald. Said Robin Rue Simmons, who first proposed the initiative. “We all know that the road to reparation and justice in the black community will be a generation of work. There will be many programs and initiatives and more funding. ”
The reparations program aims to target those affected by racist housing policies adopted by the city in the early 20th century and will be funded by a recreational marijuana tax, legal in the state.
Specifically, it will make $ 400,000 available to black residents in the form of $ 25,000 grants to promote home ownership and improvement, and will also provide mortgage assistance to black residents who can prove they are descendants of residents who have been discriminated against by housing.
“Right now the whole world is looking at Evanston, Illinois. This is a moment we have never seen, and it is a good time, “Ron Daniels, chairman of the African American National Reparations Commission, told The Washington Post.
The policies also received criticism from many of the more than 60 speakers at Monday’s city council meeting, including Councilwoman Cicely Fleming, who opposed the idea of housing subsidies and was the only one to vote. ” negative “against the program.
“True repairs must respect the autonomy of black people and allow them to determine how the repair will be managed,” Fleming told CBS News.
“They are denied this proposal, which gives money directly to banks or contractors on their behalf.”
The national reparations movement was revived last year after a wave of protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
A proposal for federal legislation, HR 40, would establish a national commission to study federal government repairs.
Locally, other cities have initiated initiatives to study repairs, including Chicago, Providence, Rhode Island, Burlington, Vermont, Asheville, North Carolina, and Amherst, Massachusetts.
Organizers hope to use the Evanston program as an example for other local initiatives in the future.
“It doesn’t mean all cities do it exactly as Evanston has done, but there is a plan,” Daniels told CBS MoneyWatch.