{"id":30384,"date":"2023-12-06T11:13:18","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T19:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=30384"},"modified":"2023-12-06T11:13:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T19:13:19","slug":"sf-reparations-office-on-hold-due-to-budget-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/12\/06\/sf-reparations-office-on-hold-due-to-budget-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"SF reparations office on hold due to budget cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/users\/profile\/Adam%20Shanks\">By Adam Shanks | Examiner staff writer |<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dec 5, 2023\u00a0Updated\u00a016 hrs ago (SFExaminer.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/sfexaminer.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/d\/63\/d63343ba-a8d3-11ed-8298-ef172c207483\/63e585cc78eaa.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267\" alt=\"Mayor London Breed\u2019s State of the City Address at Building 113 at Pier 70 on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Midyear budget cuts initiated by Mayor London Breed have put an end for the moment to The City\u2019s planned Office of Reparations.Craig Lee\/The Examiner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>San Francisco\u2019s first-ever Office of Reparations is among the programs gutted by Mayor London Breed\u2019s budget cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Funding for the office, which was set to launch this year, was erased as part of Breed\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/politics\/mayor-london-breed-orders-massive-midyear-sf-budget-cuts\/article_afc2364c-92c4-11ee-97a6-c34ea6891e46.html#:~:text=The\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$75 million cuts<\/a>&nbsp;to the The City budget in preparation for a major deficit in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though it\u2019s just one of several planned programs that will no longer be funded, the Office of Reparations is noteworthy because its establishment came after a widely followed, yearslong process that ended in accepting a reparations plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The decision to pull back funding comes after Supervisor Shamann Walton&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/politics\/sf-reparations-funding-up-for-negotiation-amid-budget-talks\/article_c9987eee-15da-11ee-aadf-8370e82c2f33.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fought to secure money<\/a>&nbsp;in the budget for the office earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though he called the cuts \u201cdisheartening\u201d in a statement to The Examiner, Walton didn\u2019t dispute the mayor\u2019s logic behind the reductions as The City faces a prolonged economic reckoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI understand the importance of no cuts to existing programs, but the Black community will continue to pursue justice and equity through reparations here in San Francisco,\u201d Walton said. \u201cMy hope is that the city\u2019s deficit is eliminated quickly so that we can fund the Office of Reparations and fulfill the commitment made to address the historical injustices and inequities that have persisted for generations for Black San Franciscans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sheryl Davis, executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, told The Examiner that despite the cuts to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/politics\/san-franciscos-tries-to-establish-an-office-of-reparations\/article_7b009394-0724-11ee-bfa1-1386ececc62f.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">office of reparations<\/a>, The City continues to work on several of the reparations plan\u2019s recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those efforts include locating a satellite campus of one of the nation\u2019s historically Black colleges and universities in San Francisco and collaborating with The City\u2019s economic development staffers to utilize vacant storefronts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA lot of the work, it\u2019ll be tight but we\u2019ll leverage some of the funding we had in our budget,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Office of Reparations was viewed as a key step in implementing the reparations plan, which was drafted by the African American Reparations Advisory Committee and accepted by the Board of Supervisors earlier this year. The $2 million would be used to hire staff who would begin to form and fund programs enumerated in the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plan recommended a sweeping suite of reparations and programs, such as support for Black-led housing cooperatives and Black entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>City leaders expressed a commitment to reparations in concept but have yet to forge a practical path to carry them out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walton initially requested $50 million be set aside in this year\u2019s budget for the creation of an Office of Reparations, then narrowed that request to $10 million and ultimately secured $2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, the $2 million is gone not only from this year\u2019s budget, but in each of the next two years, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a loss, but every department in the city is making hard decisions,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are the types of choices we need to start making to ensure the current and long-term financial sustainability of our city,\u201d Breed wrote in a letter to department heads explaining the cuts last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though it was readily accepted by the Board of Supervisors, the plan outlined by the advisory committee received some pushback, particularly from conservatives in San Francisco and nationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most controversial aspect of the plan was the $5 million&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/politics\/majority-of-bay-area-voters-oppose-reparations-cash-payments\/article_6313ea8e-50d9-11ee-a010-db3487712f1e.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cash payments<\/a>&nbsp;it proposed to be paid to each&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/politics\/how-sf-reparations-eligibility-changed-before-final-report\/article_eefef5be-1f80-11ee-ba00-676884ed474f.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">eligible Black resident.<\/a>&nbsp;However, the plan also contained a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/politics\/what-san-francisco-reparations-plan-hearing-actually-means\/article_3dbe39ae-c297-11ed-a0e6-cba25f81b856.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">broad array of reparations<\/a>&nbsp;that did not involve cash payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Breed had never actually committed to establishing the Office of Reparations, even after Walton won funding for it in the budget. Breed has repeatedly held that reparations are an issue not to be tackled on the local level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The City\u2019s budget deficit is expected to exceed $1 billion by 2027, prompting Breed to deliver mid-year budget cuts in what she called a \u201cdown payment\u201d to help lessen the blow in future years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>San Francisco\u2019s first-ever Office of Reparations is among the programs gutted by Mayor London Breed\u2019s budget cuts. Funding for the office, which was set to launch this year, was erased as part of Breed\u2019s&nbsp;$75 million cuts&nbsp;to the The City budget in preparation for a major deficit in 2024. Though it\u2019s&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/12\/06\/sf-reparations-office-on-hold-due-to-budget-cuts\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[232],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30384"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30388,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30384\/revisions\/30388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}