Known as the Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program, the first-of-its-kind program provides housing grants if the applicant is a black resident, or the descendant of black residents who lived in Evanston as adults between 1919 and 1969. That period of time was a well-documented period of racial discrimination, including in housing and redlining, against black residents.
Evanston, a suburb of Chicago, has a current population of approximately 76,000 that is 58% white, 14% black, and 10% Asian.
Launched in 2021, the housing program has handed out more than $7 million in grants that help applicants with housing, such as mortgage assistance and repairs, and the assistance can also be a direct cash payment, according to a Fox News article.
Last week, the Civil Rights Division at the DOJ announced it was joining an existing class-action lawsuit. The DOJ alleges the race-based program violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment as well as the Fair Housing Act.
Despite the historical basis for the program, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told Fox News none of the current beneficiaries personally suffered discrimination that can be traced to any actions or decisions by the government.
"We can't have this system of spoils in this country where people who didn't discriminate are being forced to pay people who didn't suffer discrimination,” she stated. “That's just a wealth transfer. It is not a narrowly tailored justification for racial classifications and that's why we're taking action."
P. Rae Easley, a longtime Chicago resident, is an ambassador for Project 21. She told American Family News she “absolutely” supports the DOJ intervening in the lawsuit.
“It's very important that we realize that race is dead in the United States of America,” she says. “You got to throw it in the garbage."
