About 400 Black residents were set to benefit from the $25,000 housing voucher program, which local officials called the first phase of the Evanston Reparations Committee initiatives.
The Chicago suburb of Evanston initially set aside $10 million for reparations in 2019, but three years later, only $400,000 has gone to 16 of the hundreds of Black people who applied.
The campaign, led by former Evanston Alderwoman Robin Rue Simmons, gained momentum in June 2019 after the Illinois legislature approved marijuana use for recreational purposes. The Evanston City Council committed the first $10 million in cannabis tax revenue it would receive to the reparations effort, estimating the marijuana tax would generate between $500,000 and $750,000 annually, today!
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