By Brad Brooks
(Reuters) – The Palm Spring city council on Thursday takes up a proposed $5.9 million reparations settlement with former residents of a largely Black neighborhood that was leveled in the 1960s for commercial development.
The city council also was to vote on another $21 million for housing and small business support aimed at the former residents and their descendants.
Former residents of the Section 14 neighborhood, which also included Latino families and other immigrants, have fought for decades to receive compensation for being pushed out of their neighborhood in the resort town located about 70 miles east of Los Angeles.
Pearl Devers, one of the former Section 14 residents, said “while no amount of money can fully restore what we lost, this agreement helps pave the way for us all to finally move forward.”
The advocacy group Section 14 Survivors said in a statement that the agreement acknowledges the city’s role in the destruction of a community that resulted in the loss of homes and personal property for hundreds of former residents and their descendants.
Palm Springs Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein said in a written statement that “we are taking bold and important action that will create lasting benefits for our entire community while providing programs that prioritize support for the former residents of Section 14.”
It was not clear how many people would split the $5.9 million cash payment, and neither the city nor a spokesperson for the lawyer representing Section 14 Survivors responded to questions about that.
The city said in statements that the cash payment was being made “in exchange for written waivers/releases from over 1,200 former Section 14 residents and descendants.” If those 1,200 were to split the payment, that would amount to less than $5,000 per person.
Last year, Los Angeles County spent $20 million to purchase a prime beachfront property from heirs of an African-American couple who were given back the land a century after local officials unjustly stripped it from them.
The settlement represents one of the rare times a city in the U.S. has approved a reparations package for residents pushed off land because of discriminatory practices.
Areva Martin, a civil rights attorney representing former residents, said that “this agreement demonstrates that it’s never too late to acknowledge past wrongs and take meaningful steps toward justice.”
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado; editing by Donna Bryson and David Gregorio)
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