More than two years later, the Community Reparations Commission in Asheville, North Carolina, has released a list of recommendations, calling for a guaranteed income program for people with "low-incomes and assets," as well as a reparations accountability council.
The 25-member commission was established in March 2022 and tasked with making "short-, medium-, and long-term recommendations that will make significant progress toward repairing the damage caused by public and private systemic racism."
One of the panel's recommendations is the creation of a guaranteed income program. According to a commission document detailing the proposal, the program would be used "as a way to ensure basic needs are met for individuals with low-incomes and assets" in the form of monthly cash payments with "no strings attached" and "no work requirements."
"A guaranteed income is meant to supplement, rather than replace, the existing social safety net and can be a tool for racial and gender equity," the commission wrote. The reparations accountability council, working with the city and county, "should determine the parameters of a program, which will benefit individuals who have been harmed by historic, systemic, and ongoing wage and employment discrimination."
In justifying its recommendations, the commission said that "Black People have been consistently and widely impoverished by discriminatory wages paid in every sector of the local economy regardless of credentials and experience" and have "experienced disproportionate unemployment rates and reduced opportunities to fully participate in the local job market."
The panel also accused the city and county of participating in urban renewal, which it says "destroyed many homes and businesses owned by Black families and greatly harmed many traditional minority neighborhoods, displacing many individuals to public housing and taking opportunities to build generational wealth."
Another of the commission's recommendations is to provide additional support to "legacy neighborhoods and public housing communities" through grants of at least $250,000 per community. Approving the proposal will "address the harm imposed by redlining," the panel said.
According to ABC 13, the commission is also recommending that an economic development center for Black Asheville residents be built.
"I'm excited about the center itself, which should operate as a think tank," commission member Dee Williams told the outlet.
The reparations accountability council recommended by the commission would be in charge of maintaining oversight of approved projects, according to ABC 13.
More recommendations are expected to come from the panel within the next several weeks.