San Francisco's $5 million per Black resident reparations plan gets first public hearing

SAN FRANCISCO (TND) — The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will meet Tuesday to publicly consider a reparations package that includes a "one-time, lump sum payment" of $5 million to eligible Black residents.

The draft reparations proposal was developed by a 15-member San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee, which was established in December 2020 to advise San Francisco's local government and the public on the creation of a citywide reparations plan.

READ MORE: "San Fran committee suggests $5 million reparations for eligible Black residents"

The San Francisco reparations committee mirrors another statewide reparations commission, the California Reparations Task Force, which has similarly proposed measures to remedy the harms caused by the country's history of slavery.

The statewide task force has been considering various proposals, including one that indicated the state's reparations payments could total as much as $640 billion, or $360,000 per eligible resident when all is said and done. Meanwhile, in addition to it's one-time payment of $5 million to those who qualify, San Francisco's proposal seeks to provide enough financial assistance for eligible residents to reach the city's median income of nearly $100,000.

It is still not entirely clear where all of the money for these two proposed reparations plans will come from, a question that could prove to be pivotal considering officials in San Francisco project a $728 million deficit over the next two fiscal years, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. Meanwhile, state level officials project a $22.5 billion deficit for the upcoming fiscal year.

The statewide deficit has seen a substantial increase since the pandemic, with California previously experiencing years of surpluses, including a $100 billion surplus amid the pandemic, according to Cal Matters.

President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Aaron Peskin, has voiced support for the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee's proposal, insisting to The Chronicle that he hopes it doesn't "just end up gathering dust on a shelf."

However, he argued to The Chronicle more recently that San Francisco doesn't have "the financial wherewithal" to "get into the reparations payment business," and that he thought a $5 million lump sum payment was not feasible.

"But that should not truncate a conversation about ways that this society and its government should address past ills," Peskin added.

Furthermore, besides the city's financial woes it is also facing a raging homelessness crisis.

According to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development the state of California roughly half of all "unsheltered" homeless people are located in California.

The National Desk (TND) reached out to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to see whether it expects the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee's proposal to pass, and, if so, where the money for it would originate. TND did not immediately hear back but if a response is received this story will be updated.