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Mayor Daniel Lurie has signed an ordinance establishing a reparations fund for San Francisco’s Black residents, per KTVU.
The measure, approved unanimously by the Board of Supervisors on December 16, creates a framework for a reparations fund for Black residents who can demonstrate they experienced documented harm in San Francisco. The ordinance doesn't, however, allocate any city money for direct payments.
Lurie signed the ordinance into law last week without a public announcement, press release, or social media post. In a statement, Lurie emphasized the city’s financial constraints. The mayor has said the fund may accept private donations and that if money becomes available, the city would oversee distribution to eligible recipients.
“I was elected to drive San Francisco’s recovery, and that’s what I’m focused on every day,” Lurie said. “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."
The announcement comes after McDonnell's African American Reparations Advisory Committee released a more than 400-page report in 2023, outlining over 100 recommendations to address historic harms, including housing displacement, discriminatory policies and economic exclusion. One proposal called for a one-time $5 million payment to each eligible individual.
Eric McDonnell, former chair of the African American Reparations Advisory Committee, said the new ordinance is a "step in the right direction. It by no means demonstrates or represents a full-on commitment to making something happen.”
“I would argue that the city is accountable for not just investing in this fund, but for supporting in all the ways possible the recommendations of our plan, including financial repair,” McDonnnell added.
Hardline critics of the ordinance argue that the move could still burden taxpayers, even without direct payouts. Conservative columnist and political commentator Richie Greenberg claimed the measure could require new city bureaucracy and lead to costly legal challenges.
“When I learned that he signed this — disillusionment, disappointment,” Greenberg said. “I had hoped that he would have said, you know, this is something that we don’t need at this point.”
“Even though it is true that there were injustices in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s against the city’s African American population, that does not mean individual taxpayers 20, 30, 50 years later should be held responsible,” he added.
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