{"id":404904,"date":"2026-07-20T02:52:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T02:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404904\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T02:52:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T02:52:25","slug":"reparations-plan-for-black-residents-passes-in-alameda-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404904\/","title":{"rendered":"Reparations plan for black residents passes in Alameda County"},"content":{"rendered":"

A California county facing a $91 million budget shortfall has become the first in the state to approve a sweeping reparations plan<\/a> for black residents calling for major changes to housing, education, healthcare and criminal justice \u2014 while leaving the door open to cash payments.<\/p>\n

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted 5\u20130 on June 30 to accept the comprehensive plan after more than two years of research and community engagement.<\/p>\n

The plan largely centers on institutional and policy changes<\/a> rather than immediately handing out direct payments, though officials have not ruled out eventually putting cash in the hands of eligible residents.<\/p>\n

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted 5\u20130 on June 30 to accept the comprehensive reparations plan. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The controversial push comes after Alameda County officials<\/a> warned during this year\u2019s budget process that they were confronting a projected $91 million gap for fiscal year 2026\u201327.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Nate Miley told Fox News that cash payments remain among the possibilities under consideration. MediaNews Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The county cut 45 vacant positions, slashed spending across departments and renegotiated contracts to ultimately pass a balanced $6.7 billion budget in June amid what officials described as significant fiscal challenges. <\/p>\n

Supervisor Nate Miley \u2014 who represents District Four and was a leading force behind the reparations initiative \u2014 told Fox News<\/a> that cash payments remain among the possibilities under consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t ruled it out. It\u2019s one of the items in the action plan. It\u2019s not the only item.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if it were the only item, or if it was a priority item, it might be more challenging,\u201d Miley said. \u201cBut I do think there\u2019s some low-hanging fruit \u2014 some immediate things we can do, and some things we\u2019re already doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then there might be the more challenging things. A cash payment might be one of those more challenging things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reparations framework<\/a> calls for expanding affordable housing, supporting black economic development, increasing investments in education and healthcare, and pursuing criminal justice reforms.<\/p>\n

Supervisors also approved the creation of a permanent standing committee to oversee the implementation of the recommendations, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe committee now has an action plan. It\u2019s in our ballpark,\u201d Miley said. \u201cWe need to take it up and deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reparations framework calls for expanding affordable housing and supporting black economic development. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Miley identified criminal justice reform, housing, education, and economic opportunity as three major issues the county should prioritize.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, economic opportunity is another important factor,\u201d explained Miley. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to balance those four and say which is more prominent, but I do think all four of those are significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see reparations as a path, an opportunity,\u201d he added. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s a panacea, but I do believe it\u2019s definitely a part of the equation that could help African Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alameda County has already partnered with the nearby City of Hayward on a separate effort providing direct financial redress.<\/p>\n

The Russell City Redress Fund was initially seeded with $900,000 and has since grown to $1.3 million.<\/p>\n

Alameda County has already partnered with the nearby City of Hayward on a separate effort providing direct financial redress. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The money is intended to provide direct payments to survivors and descendants of Russell City, a multiracial unincorporated community that was seized through eminent domain and bulldozed by local authorities in the 1950s and 1960s for industrial redevelopment.<\/p>\n

The debate over direct payments comes as a reparations program in Evanston, Illinois, faces a federal legal challenge.<\/p>\n

The Chicago suburb became the first US city to distribute reparations, offering $25,000 housing grants to eligible black residents to address historic housing discrimination.<\/p>\n

The US Department of Justice intervened in a federal class-action lawsuit challenging the program in June, arguing that its race-based criteria violate the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution.<\/p>\n

Miley said cash payments alone would not necessarily accomplish the broader changes county officials are seeking.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd once again, that\u2019s why a cash payment isn\u2019t necessarily always the objective,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe objective is: How do we get people to have housing? How do we get people to be economically stable? How do you deal with criminal justice reform?<\/p>\n

\u201cA cash payment doesn\u2019t always mean that those things will occur. We have to change policies, and we have to change programs. I think that\u2019s where we need to invest our resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Hilton, a Republican nominee for California Governor told the Post: \u201cThanks to 16 years of Democrat one-party rule we have a massive and unacceptable racial wealth and opportunity gap in California, and I am determined to fix it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way to increase opportunity\u00a0is not more of the same welfare state bureaucracy but my plan to make our state \u2018Califordable.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the way to fight the racial wealth gap, not the Democrats\u2019 divisive and unfair reparations scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, black conservative political commentator Stacy Washington said the county had spent two-and-a-half years focusing on something that \u201dwon\u2019t see black Americans thriving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia was never a slave state and I don\u2019t see anything in the plan where they actually look to make sure that the people who are having this so-called redress actually descended from slaves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat could help is if they focused on actual programs that get parents involved in reading to children from zero to age three, and then children who are enrolled in preschool programs having direct reading intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Santa Monica is also taking steps to formally address harm linked to its past actions. The city is committing $3.5 million to this effort, and officials say this money will not impact the budget.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Santa Monica City Council approved a citywide Restorative Justice Program. <\/p>\n

The program is based on three parts that city officials say will make the process fair, transparent, and legally sound: a dedicated Restorative Justice Fund, a Restorative Justice Commission set up by the City Council, and independent administration.<\/p>\n

According to the city, the fund will begin with $3.5 million, which the city will receive after it adopts a Second Amendment to its Development Agreement with the RAND Corporation in mid-2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A California county facing a $91 million budget shortfall has become the first in the state to approve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,60675,15,1011,4182,266,3586],"class_list":["post-404904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-criminal-justice-system","tag-education","tag-housing","tag-metro","tag-northern-california","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}