Community reparations: What would a cash payment program look like?

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Asheville’s 25-member Community Reparations Commission that’s been meeting more than two years is recommending city and county leaders launch a guaranteed direct cash payment program to help support individuals with extreme low income levels. The amount has yet to be determined. The payments would have no restrictions on how the money could be spent. The proposal stops short of other programs nationally, like in Evanston, Illinois, where cash reparations are specifically given to African Americans for past harms in the U.S. Evanston made history by giving qualifying Black residents $25,000 housing vouchers or $25,000 cash. The city continues to use tax revenues from recreational cannabis sales to fund the program. REPARATIONS COMMISSION SUGGESTS ECONOMIC PROJECTS FOR ASHEVILLE’S BLACK COMMUNITY Asheville and Buncombe County have more than $4 million in reparations fund reserves, mostly from taxpayer dollars approved in $500,000 installments by City Council and Buncombe Commissioners over the past several years. Those funds would be used in part for the program. Current paperwork for the Guaranteed Income Pilot states it would provide “monthly, cash payment directly to individuals,” but the program proposal falls short of stating it would be solely for Black Asheville residents. Because of...