San Francisco open to giving Black residents $5 million each in reparations

San Francisco is reportedly now one of the few American cities seriously considering reparations for its Black residents.

TMZ reported that San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors consisting of 11 members, heard a proposal this past week that was put forth by a reparations committee which was formed a few years back at the behest of the City, in the wake of the George Floyd protests across the country.

Some of the discussions on how to make things right with the African-American community include $5 million per eligible Black resident.

Some of the criteria include being at least 18 years old and identifying as Black/African-American in public documents for at least 10 years, among others.

There’s more that folks could receive under the draft reparations plan. In addition to the one-time $5M payout, the committee recommended a guaranteed basic income thereafter in the amount of $97,000/year, for 250 years.

They’d also have all their debts and tax burdens wiped clean and they might also get a single-family San Francisco home for just a buck. It seems each family would be allowed to buy just one, although it’s not entirely clear.

On how this can be paid for, the reparations committee didn’t have any answers. They place that burden on the supervisors themselves. The BOS, in turn, actually supported the proposal unanimously and said they will figure out funding later.

The Board’s only Black supervisor, Shamann Walton, has been leading the charge on this and says he wants the reparations package to be included in future City budgets.

Not everyone agrees with the terms laid out by the committee which is made up Black leaders/community members in and around San Francisco. One opponent is actually the NAACP which, while supporting the idea of reparations, is not on board with the $5M cash payouts, instead calling for the focus of investment to be in institutions, like schools/housing, etc.

The committee will submit a final report in June, and the Board will convene on this again in September.