California reparations committee’s major housing demand in $800 billion proposal
Brady Knox
The California Reparations Task Force is proposing a number of changes alongside an estimated $800 billion in monetary reparations payments, including controversial housing policies.
Chapter 22 of the task force’s reparations proposal covers a number of demands in regard to housing, including one provision which would have all municipalities turn over their residential land use ordinances to a state agency to review. The agency would have to approve each ordinance and could reject them if they are found to “exacerbate levels of residential racial segregation.”
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It would “require identified cities and counties to submit all residential land use ordinances for review and approval by a state agency, with the agency rejecting (or requiring modification of) the ordinance if the agency finds that the proposed ordinance will maintain or exacerbate levels of residential racial segregation and … remove this process of additional review and approval for identified cities or counties if the city or county eliminates a certain degree of housing segregation in its geographic territory,” it reads.
The proposal holds that zoning ordinances are used to keep black residents out, so the state agency must provide oversight on any new ones and review all existing ones.
The proposal also takes issue with crime-free housing policies, which bar renters with a criminal history, or cause renters to face eviction if they become involved in any crimes or drug-related activities. The report alleges that the practice is racist because the proportion of white renters evicted isn’t proportional to their share of the population. It also takes issue with chronic nuisance ordinances, which encourage landlords to make excessive noise an evictable offense.
The task force suggests removing the ordinances altogether, or at least drastically changing the criteria.
The task force also details plans for financial subsidies in regard to housing for black residents. It goes on to suggest implementing a “right of return” policy as well, which would greatly preference black people displaced by “agency action, restrictive covenants, and racial terror.”
“The Task Force recommends the Legislature enact measures to support a right to return for those displaced by agency action, restrictive covenants, and racial terror that drove African Americans from their homes,” it read. “The right to return should give the victims of these purges and their descendants preference in renting or owning property in the area of redevelopment. The right to return should extend to all agency-assisted housing and business opportunities in the redevelopment project area.”
Task force member Lisa Holder wrote in March that aside from the monetary aspect, the other proposals included in the task force’s proposal would be revolutionary.
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“Reparations will include programs that disrupt racism within our major institutions. These programs will be in housing, criminal-legal systems, education, health and medicine, and financial wealth and asset-building infrastructure. Fixing systemic racism and rehabilitating institutions will require major changes to these sectors,” she wrote.
The recommended housing practices are on top of direct monetary payments for black citizens, which could go as high as $1.2 million per person. The cost for the monetary payments alone is estimated to be $800 billion, nearly 2.5 times the entire state budget of California. All this comes as the state faces a $22.5 billion budget deficit for fiscal 2024.