Facing an unexpected cash crunch, the first reparations program in the country is holding off on making additional payouts as it struggles to come up with funds.
The six-year-old program at Evanston, Illinois, has run into trouble because of problems with a key funding source — a 3 percent sales tax on recreational marijuana sales in the city of 75,000, which is home to Northwestern University and located 12 miles north of Chicago. The program also accepts donations and takes in revenue from a real estate transfer tax on high-end properties.
The financial problems were highlighted during a public meeting earlier this month of the Reparations Committee during which members discussed the shortfall in pot sales that is squeezing funding.
“It seems that their sales are lower than even maybe they projected,” said Reparations Committee Chair Robin Sue Simmons, who added that she was surprised because pot sales in the state of Illinois have been strong, increasing every year since 2020.
Committee members also said revenues have been hurt because only two of three planned cannabis stores in Evanston have opened. Those dispensaries, Zen Leaf and Okay Cannabis, did not respond to requests for comment.
The city launched the reparations program in 2019, and it has distributed more than $5 million to more than 200 Black people who lived at Evanston between 1919 and 1969 and their direct descendants. Each approved applicant can receive about $25,000 targeting home purchases, mortgage payments and home repairs, as well as cash payouts.
A number of other cities around the country are in various stages of studying or implementing reparations programs, including Boston, Detroit, and St. Paul.
In Evanston, the reparations are intended to address the harm done to city residents through past “discriminatory housing policies and practices and inaction by the City,” according to a Council resolution.
But the committee’s pledge to deliver $10 million in reparations over 10 years may now be in doubt given the worsening financial picture.
“…(T)here are more recipients than available funding at this time,” the city’s website says. “Reparations funds will be disbursed as revenue is received to the Reparations Funds.”
The committee is holding off on another round of payments, hoping more money will start rolling in. But they haven’t made public a plan for turning things around.
City Councilmember Krissie Harris expressed concern that starting a new round of payouts would “not be appropriate” at this time. “As a current City Council, we stand behind it and will until we can get through the people that we promised,” Harris said.
The committee’s work is threatened by more than just low funds.
A lawsuit from Judicial Watch, a conservative advocacy group, is challenging the reparations program as unconstitutional. The suit, filed last year on behalf of six non-Black Evanston residents whose parents and grandparents lived in the city between 1919 and 1969, alleges the program’s “use of race as an eligibility requirement” violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
The Reparations Committee has been mum regarding how it confirms that successful applicants meet the eligibility criteria. Although the city’s website states that “the program identifies eligible applicants as Black or African American persons having origins in any of the Black racial and ethnic groups of Africa,” it does not describe how the verifications are accomplished.
Michael Bekesha, a senior attorney with Judicial Watch, told the Sun that Evanston may use tax records, utility bills, leases, and other evidence of property ownership to determine if applicants or their ancestors resided in the city during the 50-year timespan.
“It can be as simple as ‘Here’s a phone book with their name in it during that time period,’” he says. “There’s no obligation or requirement that the people live there for a certain amount of time.”
Bekesha added, “The interesting thing about the program is it’s not that you are Black or African American, it’s that you identify as Black or African American and that your ancestors identified as Black or African American. I’m not quite sure how you do that for a deceased ancestor. It’s our understanding that on the application, you have to state under oath that your ancestor identified as Black or African American, and you identify as Black or African American.”
In response to the suit, Simmons said, “This lawsuit is not a surprise. We know the nation that we live in,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
