California’s Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans has recommended a massive program to address past housing discrimination, including the review of local real estate ordinances.
Chapter 22 of the reparations panel’s draft recommendations, which were approved earlier this month, includes the following set of recommendations (from the draft report):
- Prioritize Responsible Development in Communities and Housing Development
- Enact Policies Overhauling the Housing Industrial Complex
- Collect Data on Housing Discrimination
- Provide Anti-Racism Training to Workers in the Housing Field
- Expand Grant Funding to Community-Based Organizations to Increase Home Ownership
- Provide Property Tax Relief to African Americans, Especially Descendants, Living in Formerly Redlined Neighborhoods, Who Purchase or Construct a New Home
- Provide Direct Financial Assistance to Increase Home Ownership Among African Americans, Especially Descendants, Through Shared Appreciation Loans and Subsidized Down Payments, Mortgages, and Homeowner’s Insurance
- Require State Review and Approval of All Residential Land Use Ordinances Enacted by Historically and Currently Segregated Cities and Counties
- Repeal Crime-Free Housing Policies
- Increase Affordable Housing for African American Californians
- Provide Restitution for Racially Motivated Takings
- Provide a Right to Return for Displaced African American Californians
Fox News points out that under these proposals, “if a city or county with a neighborhood deemed segregated wanted to implement an official change involving real estate, that change would need to be approved by a state agency based on whether it made the area more racially diverse.”
The proposals have yet to be considered by the state legislature. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has waffled on whether he would back cash reparations.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.