The Reparations Committee in Evanston, Illinois announced that 44 eligible residents will receive $25,000 payments in the coming weeks under the city’s race-based reparations initiative. The program, established in 2019 and formally approved by the City Council in 2021, provides payments to Black residents and descendants of Black residents who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969.

City officials have pledged to distribute $10 million over a 10-year period through the initiative, making Evanston the first municipality in the country to adopt and implement a reparations plan of this kind.

The payments are intended to address housing-related inequities. Cynthia Vargas, an Evanston official, told the Chicago Tribune the funds are meant to cover housing expenses. According to Tasheik Kerr, assistant to the city manager, recipients will be contacted in the coming weeks and informed that their payments are forthcoming.

Funding for the program currently comes primarily from a local cannabis sales tax and a real estate transfer tax. A city memo states the reparations fund recently received $276,588 from Evanston’s real estate transfer tax. As of Jan. 31, the fund had not received any philanthropic donations this year.

Members of the Reparations Committee have discussed additional revenue streams to sustain the program, including a potential tax on Delta-8 THC products. Alderman Krissie Harris acknowledged such a tax would not dramatically increase revenue but said it would “help keep moving that number forward” in the reparations process. Harris emphasized that payments are made as funds become available.

“It’s really important for people to understand we pay as we have the money, and it’s not that we’re withholding from paying everyone,” Harris said, according to The Daily Northwestern. “It’s just we have to accumulate the funds to make sure we can pay.”

The program has faced legal scrutiny. Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit last year challenging the use of race as an eligibility requirement, arguing the initiative violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the city has awarded more than $6.35 million to 254 individuals “based on their race” and called the program discriminatory and unconstitutional.

Supporters, meanwhile, view the program as a model for local governments seeking to address historical discrimination. Similar reparations proposals have been introduced in state legislatures and municipalities across the country, with some jurisdictions establishing commissions to study the legacy of slavery and consider compensation frameworks.

Evanston officials say the program will continue distributing payments as funding allows.