Black and Latino families whose Palm Springs homes were destroyed and burned in a brutal urban renewal program in the 1950s and 1960s have agreed to a settlement of $5.9 million, the city announced Wednesday.
Decades after city workers and the Fire Department destroyed approximately 197 homes on the nation’s property in downtown Palm Springs, the site aims to address the historic injustice of Section 14 families, as the area is known, and their descendants, the city said.
The city council will vote tonight on the settlement request, which includes compensation based on the current value of personal property lost to former Section 14 residents and their families.
In addition to the housing, the council will also consider funding for broader programs aimed at addressing long-standing economic disparities in the desert city, including $20 million for housing projects and $1 million for local business programs in underserved communities. While the programs are aimed at the entire Palm Springs community, the city said they will reach out to Section 14 families.
Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein said the city council was “very pleased” that the former residents of Section 14 agreed to accept the proposed settlement.
“The City Council has always respected the historical significance of Section 14,” he said in a statement. The settlement of the lawsuit, Bernstein said, “will create lasting benefits for our entire community while providing programs that prioritize support for former Section 14 residents.”
The city apologized for its actions affecting the neighborhood’s relocation in 2021, and talks about reinstatement have continued for several years.
Areva Martin, an attorney representing Section 14 residents and their descendants, did not respond to requests for comment Thursday morning. “The fact that we’ve made it to the finish line is amazing given the headwinds we’ve faced,” Martin told the Associated Press.
Section 14, a square-mile tract, is in the center of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Reservation. The Agua Calientes were they cannot improve their world until the late 1950s because of federal laws, according to the city, tribal landowners leased plots to Black and Latino workers who had been excluded from much of the city because of racist real estate agreements and lending practices.
The area had little water and electricity service and no power lines, sewers, garbage collection or paved roads. history lesson prepared for the city council last month by Architectural Resources Group. Since the 1930s, county, state and federal officials have raised concerns about substandard living conditions in Section 14, the study found.
But amid the city’s affordable housing crisis, Section 14 was centrally located and affordable, so it became home to the cooks, taxi drivers and maids who contributed to the development of Palm Springs’ hospitality industry. It eventually grew into a thriving community with homes, mobile homes, restaurants and churches, according to the nonprofit. Section 14 Survivors.
The California Housing Authority and the Riverside County Health Department ordered the city of Palm Springs to remove temporary, substandard housing from Section 14 in 1951, and eviction notices began going out to residents, according to the city. The city has worked to relocate Section 14 residents and ensure they will have housing following their imminent eviction but, according to one city document, not all efforts have been successful.
When state legislatures reduced tribal land boundaries in 1959, allowing 99-year leases, the city and tribal landowners had an opportunity to address health issues in the area. – and income from the world.
Multiple government agencies evicted and evicted Section 14 residents in at least five major demolition campaigns between 1936 and 1965, with direct city involvement beginning in 1948, according to a report by history lesson.
A federal investigation in 1968 found that the city acted without giving residents in Section 14 the required notice that they were being evicted before the homes were destroyed. Federal officials at the time called Palm Springs’ actions “a massacre by the city,” but did not find the city guilty of a crime.
Gov. Gavin Newsom in September signed a formal apology about California’s role in slavery and its legacy of racism against black people, but in general the state’s duty to deliver the adjustment has gone incrementally.
This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting system, sponsored by James Irvine Foundationto examine the challenges facing low-wage workers and the efforts being made to address them Economic segregation in California.
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