By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌
California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

The California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans will be conducting its last meeting of 2022 on Wednesday, Dec. 14, and Thursday, Dec. 15, at Oakland City Hall Chambers located at 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza adjacent to 14th Street.

The start time is 9 a.m. for both days beginning with one hour of public comment. The meetings will be live streamed via the official Task Force website or ETM Media on YouTube.

Task Force Chairperson Kamilah Moore says that the next meeting is of high importance “for a few reasons,” and will include an in-depth conversation about redress and repair.

“No. 1, we will begin to refine community eligibility standards (including residency requirements); No. 2, we’re inviting leaders from local/municipal reparations efforts from across the state to share their incredible work (i.e., Oakland, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Russell City, Palms Springs etc.),” Moore said in a written statement on Dec. 1. “No. 3, it will be the first-time task force members will collectively discuss and begin to determine what types of reparation proposals will be in the final report that will be released in June 2023.”

The task force’s two-year charge is scheduled to end in June 2023.

California’s AB 3121, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom into law in 2020, created the nine-member task force to investigate the history and costs of slavery in California and around the United States.

The law charges the Reparations Task Force with studying the institution of slavery and its lingering negative effects on Black Californians who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United States.

From the information they collect, the task force will develop reparation proposals for African Americans and recommend appropriate ways to educate Californians about the task force’s findings.

After the task force decided who would be eligible for compensation in March, the panel approved a framework for calculating how much should be paid — and for which offenses — to individuals who are Black descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

An expert panel reported to the task force in March that a “conservative estimate” of 2 million African Americans in California have ancestors who were enslaved in the United States. According to the U.S. 2020 Census, there are about 2.6 million Black Californians out of a total state population of nearly 40 million residents.

The five-member expert panel, appointed by the task force, is quantifying past economic injustices African Americans faced in the state and elsewhere, and determining what or how much compensation should be made to Black people living in California.

The expert panel includes William Spriggs, chief economist for the AFL-CIO and former chair of the Department of Economics at Howard University; Thomas Craemer, Public Policy professor at the University of Connecticut; Dr. Kaycea Campbell, CEO for Ventana Capital Advisors and Los Angeles Pierce College associate professor of Economics; Dr. William A. “Sandy” Darity Jr., director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University; and Kirsten Mullen, a writer, and lecturer whose work focuses on race, art, history, and politics.

All five experts participated on the first day of the two-day meeting held at the California Science Center in Los Angeles two months ago. Spriggs and Campbell attended the event in person, while the other three experts appeared virtually.

Campbell and her colleagues discussed with the task force the “models” to provide a “road map” that would determine how reparations would be “paid and measured.”

Milagro Jones, a participant at the Reparation Task Force meeting in Los Angeles, holds up a 500-page interim report that was submitted to the California Legislature in June 2022. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey, Sept. 23, 2022.

The experts presented “five harms or atrocities,” down from the 13 they originally proposed, that could be used to determine compensations.

Campbell said the five categories under review will not be “exhausted” until they have received enough data to complete the process.

“This is not to say that other harms and atrocities are not important. As soon as, or if we get better data or more recent data, then we can, in fact, go through the process of what these look like,” Campbell said.

The experts made “rough estimates,” of property unjustly taken by eminent domain, devaluation of Black businesses, housing discrimination, the disproportion of mass incarceration and over-policing, and health inequities as the major harms.

Task Force Member Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Inglewood) released the following statement as clarification that the task force has not proposed that California compensate descendants of slaves with direct compensation for historical housing discrimination.

Bradford said, “Since its formation, a lot of misinformation and willful misrepresentation of the work from the Task Force has been released. The fact is that the Task Force has not completed its work and has made no formal recommendations to the Legislature. It’s important that we be deliberative and get this right because the nation is watching and it’s more than likely ours will be the model for all to follow.”

Members of the community and media are encouraged to visit the Reparations Task Force website and subscribe to the task force’s mailing list for updates at: https://oag.ca.gov/subscribe or call (213) 519-0504.

By Olivia Wynkoop
Bay City News Foundation

A new bill would protect California renters from paying more than a month’s rent for security deposits.

Announced during the first week of California’s new legislative session, Assembly Bill 12 would prohibit the frequent practice of landlords charging two to three times the amount of monthly rent for a security deposit.

If passed, California would be the 12th state in the county to cap security deposits.

The author of the bill, Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, said that in San Francisco, tenants could be subject to paying an additional $15,000 to move into a $5,000-a-month apartment — the average cost of a two-bedroom unit in the city. Those up-front fees are causing renters to take out predatory loans, go into debt or not move at all.

“Landlords lose out on good tenants and tenants stay in apartments that are too crowded or have unsafe living conditions,” Haney said in a press release. “Creating a rental deposit cap is a simple change that will have an enormous impact on housing affordability for families in California.”

San Francisco-based speech therapist Alexis Ewing said it took her a decade to save up enough money to afford the security deposit that would allow her to move from her previous apartment into her new home.

“I’ve been able to afford higher rent for a while now but saving up the 10,000 dollars in move-in costs took me years,” Ewing said. “That’s a down payment on a house in the rest of the country.”

Often times landlords say these extra fees help them keep up with the increasing costs of repairs for units. Haney said the bill would not prevent landlords from fining tenants who cause damage to apartments that is higher than the amount of the security deposit.

“This bill will remove a huge barrier to housing access and affordability,” said Haney. “Our state can’t just continue to do things like we always have. We need to make common sense, immediate changes to make things easier for the people of California during this housing crisis.”

Application Period to Apply for Lottery Now Open Until Jan. 6

Under the City of San Leandro’s Inclusionary Housing (IH) Program, six new Below Market Rate (BMR) homes will become available for sale starting in January 2023. The City’s IH Program requires that at least 15% of homes sold in new developments are set aside at prices affordable for low to moderate income households.

The six new large three level BMR townhomes, within a total of 39 townhome units, are located at the new Maple Lane Development (687 Manor Drive). The BMR homes include: two low-income 1,605 square foot two-bedroom homes; and four moderate-income 1,760 square foot four-bedroom homes. All the homes will have two car garages. The projected BMR sales price of the homes will be approximately $275,000 for the two-bedroom homes, and $575,000 for the four-bedroom homes.

To qualify for the BMR homes, a household’s gross combined incomes must be below the maximum income requirements. For the 2-bedroom BMR units for low-income households, the maximum income limits by household (HH) size are: $87,000 for 2 person HH, $98,650 for 3 person HH, $109,600 for 4 person HH and $118,400 for 5 person HH. For the 4-bedroom BMR units for moderate income households, the maximum income limits by household size are: $171,350 for 4 person HH, $185,050 for 5 person HH, $198,750 for 6 person HH and $212,450 for 7 person HH. There is a preference applied in the lottery toward first-time homebuyer households who live and/or work in the city of San Leandro. Households should also have savings in an institutional account to apply 3% towards a down payment; have at least a 640 FICO score; and the capacity to be approved by a Program certified lender for a mortgage to purchase the home.

The lottery intake, screening, administration, and IH Program underwriting for the Maple Lane BMRs, is conducted by a City contracted nonprofit, the Bay Area Affordable Homeownership Alliance (BAAHA). The private developer for the Maple Lane Development, DR Horton, is separately marketing the remaining 33 market rate units. To get more information on this BMR homeownership opportunity visit BAAHA’s website at https://www.myhomegateway.org/sanleandro-maplebmr.html.

All households interested in purchasing a BMR must submit a Lottery application to BAAHA by no later than 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. Applications can be obtained at BAAHA’s website https://www.myhomegateway.org/sanleandro-maplebmr.html. For more information contact BAAHA by email at info@myhomegateway.com.