According to the California Reparations Task Force, $569 billion was owed by Californian black residents to housing reparations. These people were born between 1933 and 1977 in America.
The task force was created by the California Governor Gavin Newsom in 2020. The task force consists of nine members, who spent months traveling the state collecting data as well as conducting interviews to assess the long-term effects.
Nine members of the panel plan to submit a comprehensive report to Sacramento legislators next year. The group hopes their efforts will decrease California’s wealth gap between black and white Californians.
The task force reviewed five areas of compensation in its preliminary report for 2022: housing discrimination, mass incarceration, unjust property seizures, devaluation and black business and health care.
California residents who are descendants of enslaved African-Americans or “free Black persons living before the 19th century” are eligible to receive reparations.
The median wealth of black households is $24,100 in the United States, while white households are $188,000. This preliminary paper refers to the Federal Reserve Board Survey of Consumer Finances.
The wealth gap can be attributed to redlining, racist housing covenants and segregation of black Californians between the 1950s and the 1960s.
According to the panel, black Californians owe $569B or $223,000.00 per person for discrimination in housing.
The Reparations Task Force continues to decide how reparations should go to the most qualified people. The Reparations Task Force still has to decide whether to pay tuition, housing grants, or cash payments.
Jovan Scott Lewis, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who is also a member of the Reparations Task Force, told the Times that they are “looking into reparations on a scale that’s largest since Reconstruction.” ”
Although the task force represents the largest national reparations initiative in recent years, the nine-member panel is limited to making recommendations to state legislators.
