For some Californians, perhaps many, it's hard to wrap their heads around the idea that the homeless people they see on the streets have anything to do with slavery.

After all, we are California, a supposedly “free” state. We like to think of ourselves as far removed ideologically and from the atrocities that built the South. However, slavery was common during the gold rush era, captivating not only blacks but also Latino and indigenous communities.

However, respected researchers UC San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative There is no doubt that the historical trafficking of 12 million black people to American shores is directly linked to the poverty and suffering of black people on the streets of the West Coast today.

“The overrepresentation of Black people in the homeless population stems from 400 years of anti-Black racism that is ingrained in the structures, institutions, ideologies, and social norms of American life, beginning with slavery.” researchers stated in a recently published study.

This may come as a shock to those who have not paid attention to the reparations debate: the need to right the wrongs of systemic racism and compensate black people for the lasting harms of slavery. It's a statement of harsh truth. But for those following California's reparations task force and most black Americans, the findings are hardly groundbreaking.

In the South, slavery gave way to Jim Crow laws and lynching. To escape, blacks fled north and then west. But once they arrived, redlining and the denial of investment in black communities created generations of state-enforced poverty and a lack of housing that built wealth and stability.

Poverty became a pretext for surveillance and criminalization, including violent overpolicing, the destruction of families by child protective services, and the mass incarceration of black men. And we now have Black Americans in such a precarious economic and social situation that one misfortune can result in them becoming homeless.

“This didn't happen by accident, and it didn't just happen because of a few bad people. This was systematic,” said Benioff, director of the Black community. said Margot Kushel, one of the authors of a study recommending that reparations in the form of cash payments are needed to combat homelessness.

“This is the most powerful compensation case, right?” she said. “Honestly, it feels like a necessary conversation.”

That's certainly what the California Legislative Black Caucus is saying. Last week, lawmakers gathered in Sacramento for a press conference to announce the 14 bills they plan to introduce and repeal this year in hopes of turning the recommendations of the California Reparations Task Force into actionable laws and policies. Officially announced.

“This is a large undertaking, so you can expect a package every year until our work is completed,” said Rep. Lori D. Wilson (D-Shui), chair of the Legislative Black Caucus. explained. “Some will be systemic in nature. Some will require direct investments in people and communities. All will require support from the Legislature and the governor.”

One of the original bills called for a formal apology from the state, another called for compensation for land confiscated for racist acts in prominent lands like Bruce Beach, and another called for a It prohibits voluntary slave labor, or prison work where inmates are often forced to work for pennies. 1 hour.

All of this draws a line between the dire conditions millions of Black Californians currently face, such as homelessness and housing insecurity, and the burden of decades of discrimination. Members of the Legislative Black Caucus were clearly tired and unfazed by the many excuses as to why reparations would not become a reality.

“Our state needs to address these harms,” ​​Wilson said matter-of-factly.

“America's wealth was built on the forced labor of trafficked Africans and their descendants, all of whom were bought and sold as commodities,” said Rep. Akira Weber (D-La Mesa). “The U.S. government at all levels permits or participates in the exploitation, abuse, terrorism, and murder of people of African descent, resulting in the death of mostly white Americans. [could] Profit from their enslavement. ”

“This Congress allowed slave owners to bring their slave property as long as they arrived here before 1850,” said Rep. Reggie Jones Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), adding that California He scoffed at the frequent objections that he had no obligation to compensate because he had not paid compensation. state of slavery. “Then the California Supreme Court said slaveholders were fine as long as they stayed temporarily. That's not freedom.”

But perhaps it was Rep. Corey Jackson (D-Perris) who best summed up the reparations case — the same case that Kuchel created and uncovered through her team's investigation.

“We have to understand that the era of a color-blind society is a failure,” he says. “If you can’t see us, you can’t serve us.”

The illusion that race doesn't matter, built into law by Prop. 209, is one reason California continues to drive the wheels of homelessness. Until legislators and governors start addressing the causes and policy decisions that affect the people most likely to end up on the streets, this practice will likely continue, costing billions of taxpayer dollars.

Black people make up about 7% of California's population but 26% of people without a permanent home, according to data from the California Statewide Survey of People Experienced Homelessness (CASPEH). If you've ever taken a walk down Skid Row, this shouldn't come as a surprise.

Yes, we need more housing. And yes, we need more services.

But what happens to the approximately 75% of California's unincarcerated blacks who are men, many of whom come straight after long stays in county jails or stints in prison? He was released with perhaps a few hundred dollars, but had little, if any, option other than to quickly fall into homelessness.

Kushel noted that this should make it easier to help people in this group because they know who they are and where they are before they become homeless. We just choose not to do it.

Are the 80% of black people living on our streets simply homeless? They faced, for example, discrimination from illness, unemployment, and landlords unwilling to rent to people with bad credit or complex backgrounds. Half of them are over 50 years old and are reaching old age without shelter.

And what about the fact that most black people living without a home come from extreme poverty? Those who had their own place with their name on the rental agreement before losing shelter were making about $1,200 a month. Those who lived off the blessings of others earned only about $960 a month.

Of course, not all black people are poor. Far from it. But poverty remains disproportionately predictable among Black people, not just in California, because of the enduring harms of slavery and discriminatory housing policies.

The study found that white families had a median wealth of $184,000 in 2019, compared to just $23,000 for comparable Black families. And throughout the pandemic, The racial wealth gap is actually widening.the difference is now over $240,000.

Unsurprisingly, homeownership numbers are similarly bleak. 2023 Census data found that 75% of white households own their home. Only 45% of black households owned their own — Only 3% increase since 1960when discrimination against black homebuyers was legal in California.

Many elected officials are concerned about the connections between addiction, poverty, and homelessness, but despite stereotypes and criminalization, black people abuse hard drugs more than any other demographic. It is noteworthy that they were statistically less likely to report.

The fact that so many black people were forced into homelessness without the added push of substance abuse struck Kuchel as another example of how precarious black existence is. “It doesn't take much to make them homeless,” she says.

To combat this, UCSF researchers are proposing cash payments as one possible solution.

Kara Young Ponder, the study's lead author, told researchers that most homeless Black Californians receive ongoing payments of less than $500 per month (similar to a guaranteed income) or $5,000 or more. He said he was told he could receive income through a one-time lump sum payment of $10,000. to the housing. The latter is about what you need for your apartment deposit and first month's rent.

But beyond the simple need for money shared by all homeless people, Black people report facing anti-Black bias within the homeless services system, Young Ponder said. That means less support in all areas, from housing coordinators to health care providers.

“They are still treated differently than people of other races,” Young Ponder said, calling cash payments an important way to “avoid” discrimination.

In the context of reparations, the idea of ​​cash payments is controversial, to say the least. A poll conducted by the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Government and co-sponsored by the Times found that California voters oppose such payments to black people whose ancestors were slaves by a 2-to-1 margin. .

“This is a steep uphill climb, at least from the public's perspective,” pollster Mark DiCamillo said after the results were released in August.

in the national budget Deficit could soon reach $73 billionthere are also financial constraints.

Wilson acknowledged that this is one reason she and other Black lawmakers have decided to forego requesting cash payments now. But the bigger reason is a lack of public knowledge about why reparations are needed, and with bills calling for the most unpopular forms of reparations being defeated, this is rapidly becoming a national movement. She said she feared it would hurt the movement.

“There's a lot of misinformation out there,” Weber said. “I'm California-born and raised in California. And I thought all these problems happened in the South, I didn't know what California did.”

However, members of the Legislative Black Caucus have not ruled out future legislation calling for cash payments. They say it is undeniable that California's laws and policies systematically oppress black people economically, and they are right.

Kushel, Young Ponder, and their fellow researchers at the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative believe that black people are intentionally excluded from wealth and stability, and that reparations are the only way to address the hardships that caused this. Only recently has it been demonstrated that this may be necessary. The only question is when Californians will start believing it.

“America's original sin is the genocide and enslavement of humanity,” Jones-Sawyer said. “America's second greatest sin is standing by while it happens and pretending it never happened.”