The Mayor of San Francisco has quietly signed a bill that establishes a "Reperations Fund" that could grant every eligible black resident up to $5 million in reparations, for historic discrimination and displacement, despite California entering the Union as a free state in 1850.
"The Reparations Plan outlines a variety of methods to provide restitution, compensation, and rehabilitation to individuals who are Black and/or descendants of a chattel enslaved person and have experienced a proven harm in San Francisco," the ordinance reads.
The fund does not guarantee payments or allocate funds directly, but establishes the legal framework for reparations. It can also be supported through private donations from individuals, foundations, and other non-city entities. Thankfully, no taxpayer money will be allocated to the fund.
"San Francisco secretly rolled out $5 million-per-person slave reparations for Black residents while in a $1 billion deficit," Townhall wrote on X. "They don't have the funds to pay it. Also: California didn't have slaves."
OMG
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 2, 2026
San Francisco secretly rolled out $5 million-per-person slave reparations for Black residents while in a $1 billion deficit.
They don't have the funds to pay it.
Also: California didn't have slaves. 🤡pic.twitter.com/kIUfWAaLLc
"I was elected to drive San Francisco’s recovery, and that’s what I’m focused on every day," Lurie said in a statement. "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."
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The law references a 2023 policy report by the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee (AARAC), a city-appointed body. The committee examined the harms suffered by Black residents and proposed remedies, including a $5 million payment.
Those alleged harms come from "residential displacement" and "racial discrimination," which the group claims originated during the urban renewal era, which spans from the 1940s to the 1970s.
"The City and County of San Francisco and its agencies should issue a formal apology for past harms and commit to making substantial ongoing, systemic and programmatic investments in Black communities to address historical harms," the report read in part.
It recommended that the city "[p]rovide a one-time, lump sum payment of $5 million to each eligible person."
The report also suggested a guaranteed annual income tied directly to median area income; the creation of an Office of Reparations to run programs; major housing interventions like rental assistance and homeownership support; city-backed funds to buy property along streets where Black businesses were common; and multimillion-dollar investments in Black-owned businesses.
“The passage of this ordinance moves San Francisco from apology to action,” Supervisor Shamann Walton, the sponsor of the bill, said in a statement. “Passing the reparations fund will now allow for individuals, foundations, businesses, and communities to donate their own resources towards funding recommendations developed by the African American Reparations Advisory Committee here in San Francisco."
“I am proud of the work that has been done to get us here, and will continue to fight until we right the wrongs of the past," she added.
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