Hold onto your wallets, folks—San Francisco has just opened the door to a reparations plan that could hand out a staggering $5 million per eligible Black resident.
According to Fox News, in a move that’s sparked both curiosity and concern, Mayor Daniel Lurie has signed an ordinance creating a "Reparations Fund" aimed at addressing historical discrimination and displacement faced by the city’s Black community.
This story began earlier this month when the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed the ordinance, setting the stage for a controversial policy discussion.
Just two days before Christmas, Mayor Lurie quietly put his signature on the measure, establishing a legal framework for the fund without actually allocating any money or promising payouts.
The fund, if it ever materializes, could be supported by private donations, foundations, or other non-city sources, sidestepping immediate taxpayer burden.
However, any reparations payments drawn from public coffers would require separate legislation, a clear funding source, and the mayor’s approval—a tall order given the city’s current fiscal mess.
Speaking of fiscal messes, San Francisco is grappling with a jaw-dropping $1 billion budget deficit, making the idea of multi-million-dollar payouts seem like a fiscal fantasy.
Mayor Lurie himself seems keenly aware of this, emphasizing his focus on more immediate priorities. “I was elected to drive San Francisco’s recovery, and that’s what I’m focused on every day,” he told Fox News Digital.
“We are not allocating money to this fund—with a historic $1 billion budget deficit, we are going to spend our money on making the city safer and cleaner,” Lurie added, signaling a pragmatic stance that clashes with the ordinance’s lofty ambitions.
The ordinance draws inspiration from a 2023 policy report by the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee (AARAC), a city-appointed group tasked with studying harms to Black residents.
The nonbinding AARAC report points to decades of alleged city-driven racial discrimination and residential displacement, particularly during the urban renewal period from the mid-1940s to the 1970s. Among its boldest suggestions is a one-time payment of $5 million to each eligible Black resident—quite the figure when you consider the city’s roughly 46,000 Black population per U.S. Census data.
Beyond cash payments, the AARAC report calls for a formal apology from the city, a guaranteed annual income tied to local median earnings, and sweeping housing support like rental assistance and homeownership programs.
It also pushes for new city agencies such as an Office of Reparations, alongside major investments in Black-owned businesses and property funds along key commercial corridors—a wishlist that sounds noble but lacks a clear funding path.
While the intent behind addressing historical wrongs may resonate with some, the practicality of these proposals in a cash-strapped city raises eyebrows, especially when California’s own Legislature has repeatedly stumbled over similar reparations bills, with many stalling or failing despite the state’s Reparations Task Force being active since 2020.