Sacramento to study slavery reparations for Black residents. What form could they take?
.JPG "Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn and Mayor Darrell Steinberg kneel with a large group of demonstrators in Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood on Wednesday, June 3, 2020, in a display of unity as another day of protests over the death of George Floyd was planned in the capital. Steinberg is one of 11 mayors in the country to pledge to create a pilot program to issue slavery reparations to Black residents.")
Black residents of Sacramento could in the future receive reparation payments for slavery.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg is one of 11 mayors across the country who pledged to create a pilot reparations program targeted at a cohort of Black residents. The effort is intended to show how a program at the national level could work.
“Slavery is the original sin in this country and we are still living with its impacts,” Steinberg said.
It’s not yet clear what Sacramento’s program will look like — an advisory committee will help shape the details — but there is at least one model to look toward.
Earlier this year, the City Council of Evanston, Illinois, voted to pay $25,000 to qualifying Black households to use for putting down a home payment or for home repair. That city pledged to spend $10 million on the program over the next 10 years.
Sacramento could create a similar program, Steinberg said. It could also require that each time a significant amount of city money is used for a project, a certain percentage of the jobs go to residents of disadvantaged ZIP codes.
“I think we ought to be open to everything, but I think direct investments in affordable housing and job training and high-wage job opportunities for people who are still experiencing the continuing impact of slavery is a just and wise path,” Steinberg said.
It’s unclear if city money will be used, or if state or federal money will be available. The details about Sacramento’s reparations plan will likely be announced in 2022, Steinberg said.
Reactions from the Black community
Chet P. Hewitt, president and CEO of the Sierra Health Foundation, said he was encouraged by the mayor’s participation, but that the specifics will be important.
“The centrality of the idea that reparations are warranted is great, but the execution and the details are as important as coming to grips with the need,” Hewitt said. “I think it has to be something more than a short-term infusion of cash to some folks.”
Under former Mayor Michael Tubbs, the city of Stockton gave $500 a month to 125 residents as part of a guaranteed income experiment, which is considered a success. Hewitt said that program was a good start, but that Sacramento should give payments to all Black residents and also to some Black-owned businesses. It should also go farther than that, he said.
For example, in addition to giving a payment to a Black-owned business on Mack Road, the city should “clean up” the street with landscaping in the median, signage and lighting, Hewitt said. The city should also commit to granting a portion of city contracts to Black-owned businesses, and improve libraries and parks in Black neighborhoods, he said.
Kelsey Lyles, of the Oakland-based Greenlining Institute, agreed that cash payments should be paid to all residents in the city who identify as Black or African American, and should not be taxed or restricted.
In addition, there should be down payment assistance or zero-interest rates on a mortgages, Lyles said. That’s especially important for Sacramento, which has a housing and homelessness crisis, Lyles said.
Homelessness affects the Black community at a disproportionate rate. The number of Black homeless people who died in 2019 made up 28% of the total deaths that year. Only 13% of the county’s population is Black.
“We have to think of how to house people not just temporarily, but in a way that allows them to build generational wealth,” Lyles said.
Sonia Lewis, a community activist, is supportive of reparations in theory, but is skeptical about how the program will be rolled out in Sacramento. A better way to serve the Black community would have been to decrease police funding in the city budget and reallocate the money, Lewis said.
The council earlier this month approved a $1.3 billion fiscal year 2021-2022 city budget, which included an all-time-high $165.8 million for the police. It pays for five new officers, bringing the number of budgeted officers to 756. It also pays for replacement vehicles and 3.5% raises officers received in December from their union contract.
“The data doesn’t support that they need more officers,” Lewis said. “The data and numbers say we need more crisis prevention, more jobs, more housing, more social workers, and more things to prevent poverty.”
The city has spent about $119.5 million on programs and services to uplift disadvantaged communities since November 2018, according to the mayor’s office. That money has not come out of the police budget, however.
The founding members of the national reparations group, called Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity (MORE), are Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock. The other mayors are: Mayor Tishaura Jones of St. Louis, Missouri; Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, Missouri; Mayor Jorge O. Elorza of Providence, Rhode Island; Mayor Keisha Currin of Tullahassee, Oklahoma; Mayor Steve Adler of Austin, Texas; Mayor Melvin Carter of St. Paul, Minnesota; Mayor Steve Schewel of Durham, North Carolina; and Mayor Esther Manheimer of Asheville, North Carolina. Tubbs will serve in an advisory capacity.
This story was originally published June 22, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
