A pro-reparations sign is posted outside a home in Evanston's 5th Ward, March 23, 2021. Evanston aldermen approved Monday the first expenditures in the city's municipal reparations program. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Evanston aldermen Monday evening approved the first expenditures in the city’s landmark municipal reparations program designed to compensate Black residents for codified discrimination.
Officials in the suburb say the initiative, which has been in the planning stages since 2019, is designed to address the discriminatory housing policies and practices faced by Black residents. The $10 million program — the first of its kind in the nation when approved in 2019 — will be funded through marijuana sales tax revenue along with some donations.
Evanston reparations program: When it started, who will benefit, why start with housing »
The specific measure approved Monday in an 8-1 vote establishes a $400,000 housing grant program, the first expenditure of that larger fund.
Ald. Robin Rue Simmons, who first proposed the reparations initiative, called the portion of the program approved Monday a first step.
“It is, alone, not enough,” Simmons said. “We all know that the road to repair and justice in the Black community is going to be a generation of work. It’s going to be many programs and initiatives, and more funding.”
Supporters hope Evanston’s decision will pave the way for more reparations programs across the nation.
“For the first time, the United States is moving in the right direction. I believe this surge of goodwill began in Evanston about two years ago,” said the Rev. Michael Nabors of Second Baptist Church in Evanston.
The resolution approved Monday directs initial funding of $400,000 from the city’s Local Reparations Fund to a housing program that will award eligible individuals up to $25,000. That money can be used to help with a home down payment or closing cost assistance within the city; help pay for repairs, improvements or modernizations of an Evanston property; or help pay down mortgage principal, interest or late penalties on Evanston property, according to a memo from Kimberly Richardson, interim assistant city manager.
To qualify, an applicant must have “origins in any of the Black racial and ethnic groups of Africa,” according to the memo. Applicants must also be a Black resident of Evanston between 1919-1969, or that person’s direct descendant. Applicants also may qualify if they experienced housing discrimination due to the city’s policies or practices after 1969.
Research documented by a city subcommittee shows that, historically, Evanston rules largely limited Black residents to the triangle between the North Shore Canal, the Union Pacific railroad tracks and Church Street, among other discriminatory practices.
“The Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program ... acknowledges the harm caused to Black/African-American Evanston residents due to discriminatory housing policies and practices and inaction on the part of the City,” the resolution reads.
The program is a step toward “revitalizing, preserving, and stabilizing Black/African-American owner-occupied homes in Evanston, increasing homeownership and building the wealth of Black/African-American residents, building intergenerational equity amongst Black/African-American residents, and improving the retention rate of Black/African-American homeowners in the City of Evanston,” the resolution reads.
The program will be paid for with the city’s 3% cannabis sales tax. The city also has received about $21,340 in private donations to the fund.
In November 2019, Evanston aldermen approved a measure that directed all sales tax revenue collected from recreational marijuana purchases, with a cap of $10 million, to the local reparations fund.
While the historic vote sets a precedent for the nation, some local residents in recent months have questioned if the housing program is the right use of the money.
Ald. Cicely Fleming, 9th Ward, who cast the lone vote against the measure, said she did so because “what we have here before us tonight, I would counter, is a housing program with the title reparations.”
She said the housing program does not allow “people to dictate the terms of how they are repaired.”
Other residents said they wanted reparations in the form of cash payments, not mortgage assistance.
“I want reparations like any Black person in this city does,” said Evanston resident Rose Cannon, who supports cash payments. “(But) I am willing to step back and not take this in the package in which it’s presented to me.”
Incoming Evanston mayor Daniel Biss, whose term will start in May, issued a statement Sunday in support of the approved plan.
“Reparations is a huge, difficult, and complex project that seeks to address the damage done by white supremacy, one of the great prolonged evils in human history. It will not be “solved” on the first try,” Biss wrote. “On the contrary, we will have to try many different approaches, listen with an open mind to learn from what works and what needs to be changed, and adjust our strategy on an ongoing basis.”
In his statement, Biss said the city will continue with a process that is only just beginning.
Targeting housing support was also an effort to address the city’s declining Black population, which has dropped from 22.5% of the population in 2000 to 16.9% in 2017, according to U.S. Census data.