The city anticipates distributing the next round of $25,000 reparations grants after Thursday’s Reparations Committee meeting, said Tasheik Kerr, assistant to the city manager. The direct cash payments for the two remaining ancestors from the first 16 recipients named are expected to receive their grants at the same time, too, Kerr said.
Kerr didn’t name a specific date for when these grants will be distributed.
“We will aim for the next bill list depending on how many recipients staff is able to visit,” Kerr said.
Kerr didn’t explain what “next bill list” means in time for deadline. But she said the city plans to distribute between 35 to 80 grants in its second round. The city isn’t able to share the exact number of grants it plans to disburse because it can’t reveal the amount of monies in the reparations fund.
On March 2, the Reparations Committee approved distributing direct cash payments to siblings Kenneth and Sheila Wideman. Committee chair Robin Rue Simmons told the RoundTable after that meeting that the Widemans’ grant will be tax-free. But now the city isn’t so sure about that.
“I do not have a response to the tax question,” Kerr said via email on April 4. “Staff is researching this question.”
Direct cash payment is at the top of the Reparations Committee’s agenda for its upcoming meeting on Thursday, April 6.
The City Council approved amending the Restorative Housing Program, the city’s (and the nation’s) first reparations program, to add a new option for grants: direct cash payment. The council also approved designing a new reparations initiative benefit program for direct cash payment.
The committee plans to discuss both direct cash payment developments.
The agenda also says the committee will be establishing three working groups with five to seven members to concentrate on economic development, housing and educational initiatives.
The committee will give an update on informational sessions with the families of ancestors who died before receiving their grants. Seven ancestors have died waiting for reparations.