California Struggling to Pay Reparations After Approving Them 2 Years Ago

California legislators could soon approve billions of dollars in reparations for Black residents, but past restitution programs in the state suggest that those efforts can be challenging to execute.

On Monday, the California Reparations Task Force released the first monetary estimates that Black residents could receive from the state as compensation for the state’s history of slavery and reparations. Amounts could range from $2,300 to $77,000 a person, based on calculations of specific racial harms and the duration of time that an individual has lived in California.

The task force, which is the first of its kind, is expected to vote on the proposal Saturday. If approved, their recommendations would be sent to the state Legislature, which would draft a new bill and head to Governor Gavin Newsom‘s desk if it passes.

In 2021, California became the the third state to approve reparations for survivors who were sterilized under state eugenics laws, following North Carolina and Virginia, and the first state to approve such compensations for those who were sterilized while incarcerated in the state’s women’s prisons.

Newsom approved a $4.5 million budget request to provide reparations for an estimated 600 people who remain alive today and who were sterilized by California’s government without their knowledge, paying each at least $15,000 in restitution.

Since 1909, the state sterilized roughly 20,000 people, making California’s forced sterilization program the nation’s largest. The program disproportionately targeted Latinas, Blacks, poor populations and those with disabilities.

Applications under Newsom’s initiative began in January 2022, but as of January, a year into the search for eligible claimants, only 51 people received a payment. The state denied 103 applications and were still processing 153 others. The numbers suggest that the majority of survivors who are eligible for reparations have yet to apply for those payments. Applications will only be accepted up to the end of this year, so the window to find all those individuals is closing.

The struggle to pay out those reparations shows the challenges of such programs.

North Carolina faced its own issues after conflicts…