Evanston Reparations Housing Program Goes Before City Council

EVANSTON, IL — With the City Council scheduled to vote Monday on authorization of the first money allocated to Evanston's local reparations program, one alderman has pledged to vote against the "rushed" vote, a group of Black residents argues the program is "racist," and a conservative law firm warned the program was unconstitutional.

The Evanston City Council voted in November 2019 to create the Reparations Fund, a first-in-the-nation municipal effort to address the city's racial wealth gap and help repair some of the damage from city-backed racial discrimination.

Funding was provided by the first $10 million in revenue generated by the 3 percent municipal tax on recreational cannabis sales. Because state regulators have only permitted one dispensary to open in Evanston, and state law makes sales tax revenue data confidential, the amount of money in the fund has not been publicly disclosed.

The City Council created a reparations subcommittee, which held more than a dozen public meetings to formulate ways to spend the money. As a first initiative, the subcommittee identified a housing program — the Restorative Housing Program.

The program will initially allocate $400,000, which would be spent on payments of up to $25,000 to those who can show a connection to the city's Black community between 1919 and 1969 — or those who experienced housing discrimination due to the city's policies after 1969.

According to draft guidelines of the program, the money can go toward mortgage assistance, home improvements or purchasing a home.

The housing program has the support of national reparations group like The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, or N'COBRA, the National African American Reparations Commission, or NAARC.

But some Black residents have opposed the program, forming the Evanston Rejects Racist Reparations group and arguing housing assistance programs should not be branded as reparations for the African American community. The group has called on aldermen to vote against the program as it currently stands — or to wait for the new City Council to be seated.

Voters go to the polls in municipal elections April 6, and Mayor-elect Daniel Biss and at least three new aldermen will be seated May 10.

The only member of the City Council that is guaranteed to still be in office at that point became the first alderman to publicly state she would vote against the program.

"If we're doing reparations, let's do reparations right," 9th Ward Ald. Cicely Fleming, who is running unopposed, said Friday in a statement. "Let's not short-change Black people on something they've been waiting centuries for."

Fleming believes the program should be labeled as a "housing program" rather than "reparations," and said she would further explain her reasoning at Monday's meeting.

“True reparations should respect Black people’s autonomy and allow them to determine how repair will be managed, including cash payments as an option. They are being denied that in this proposal, which gives money directly to the banks or contractors on their behalf," Fleming added.

City officials have argued residents will receive more money from the Restorative Housing Programs if it is distributed through financial institutions, because they would otherwise face federal income tax liability.

Fleming said it appeared the vote was being rushed so it could be approved before the election. The lead sponsor of the 2019 reparations push and chair of the Reparations Subcommittee, Robin Rue Simmons, is not running for re-election in the 5th Ward.

Two other incumbents, subcommittee member and 8th Ward Ald. Ann Rainey and 4th Ward Ald. Don Wilson, will be leaving office after each coming in third place in primary elections last month.

“As a stand-alone housing program, I support this," Fleming said. "I cannot support this plan being called reparations.”

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Ald. Peter Braithwaite said at the March 8 City Council meeting that he was amazed that anyone was questioning the Restorative Housing Program, considering how much positive media attention it had generated.

Braithwaite, who is facing a challenge from Darlene Cannon in his first competitive race for the 2nd Ward seat to which he was appointed in 2011, said he was suspicious of the Evanston Rejects Racist Reparations group.

"I think we should all be suspect," he said, "Whenever you have a Black effort, and you have Black people with Black allies attacking those efforts, in the name of Black unity, is something that I just can't get my head around."

On Thursday, attorney C. Boyden Gray sent a letter to Mayor Steve Hagerty and the City Council on behalf of the legal defense nonprofit Project on Fair Representation.

Citing U.S. Supreme Court opinions from Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Gray described the program as illegal and unconstitutional.

"It provides benefits not on the basis of whether someone has suffered past discrimination, but solely on the basis of skin color or national origin," Gray said.

"Ironically, the City's approach would resurrect the very legal theories that were used to justify racial discrimination in the past and would perpetuate racial classifications in a way that is incompatible with the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution."

According to city staff, the Reparations Subcommittee will be dissolved at the end of next month to be replaced with a permanent Reparations Committee of the Evanston City Council. Applications were being accepted for those wishing to be appointed to the committee.