San Francisco lawmakers vote to create reparations fund for black residents with no upfront funding

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Reparations for Black San Franciscans are back on the table after the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday gave final approval to an ordinance to create a fund to address harm caused by the city’s past discriminatory policies.

The measure allocates no upfront money to the city, a move that could have helped win support from council moderates after repeated years of city budget deficits. Instead, the ordinance establishes a framework for receiving future contributions – whether through municipal appropriations or private donations.

“It’s certainly different from asking the city to cough up dollars to support repair recommendations,” said Supervisor Shamann Walton, who authored the ordinance. “It’s going to take some time. We need to build a pot of money and then, of course, set the right criteria in terms of how to prioritize which recommendations we will address first. But this is a major first step.”

The vote follows years of work by the city’s African American Advisory Committee on Reparations, which released a sweeping draft proposal in March 2023 that included more than 100 recommendations. These included one-time lump sum payments of $5 million to every eligible Black adult, a guaranteed annual income of $97,000, down payment assistance, tax and debt relief, and affordable housing options such as homes for as little as $1 — making for one of the most ambitious reparations plans in the country.

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As part of this effort, the committee highlighted systemic disinvestment in predominantly black neighborhoods like Western Addition and Fillmore from the 1950s through the early 1970s, which led to mass displacement without compensation.

The city’s black population has since declined and today, although it makes up about 5 percent of residents, it makes up about 37 percent of those housed in shelters or homeless.

James Taylor, a descendant of slaves and a member of the committee, put the proposal in deeply personal terms.

“I think that means social reparation for the group most affected by these policies that go back 150 years in the state and continue to underdevelop the full potential of the state’s black population,” he said.

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“Think about how recent this is and how economically: the empty hands of my grandfather left me nothing, because the empty hands of his grandfather, who started in slavery, left him nothing,” he said.

If funded, San Francisco’s fund could provide reparations to Black residents who can demonstrate harm caused by past policies sanctioned by the city or by a lineage linked to slavery in the United States.

Critics in the past have questioned the economic feasibility of such reparations or how fairly they would be distributed.

Walton acknowledged that funding remains the central challenge, but expressed optimism that foundations, corporations and individuals can be tapped to support the effort. He emphasized that the ordinance puts structural elements in place, even without immediate funding.