In a move that has drawn sharp criticism from civil rights advocates, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division filed paperwork on Tuesday, June 16, to intervene in an existing federal lawsuit challenging Evanston, Illinois’ Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program. The timing — just days before Juneteenth — has not gone unnoticed.
Evanston launched the first-of-its-kind program in 2021 after the city council voted to allocate $20 million toward reparations for Black residents. The city has since distributed more than $7 million in $25,000 payments to eligible recipients. Those funds can be used for home repairs, mortgage assistance, down payments, property-related penalties, and other housing costs. The program has largely been bankrolled through local cannabis tax revenue.
To qualify, a Black resident — or their direct descendants — must have lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969 and been subject to housing discrimination as a result of local ordinances or city policy. Residents of any race who can demonstrate housing discrimination tied to city policies after 1969 may also be eligible.
The DOJ’s filing argues that distributing benefits on the basis of race violates both the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the Fair Housing Act. U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros stated in the filing: “The Constitution demands that the government treat citizens as individuals, not as members of a racial class. Distributing public funds based on an individual’s ancestry or race divides the citizenry and establishes the very hierarchy the Equal Protection Clause was designed to dismantle.”
The underlying lawsuit was originally filed in May 2024 by six plaintiffs who identified as descendants of people who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969 but are not Black, arguing the program discriminated against them.
Evanston officials and advocates are pushing back firmly. Robin Rue Simmons, the former alderperson who helped build the program, called the federal government’s intervention a “fear tactic” aimed at discouraging similar reparations efforts elsewhere. She and other defenders of the program argue it was built as a direct response to documented redlining and segregation-era policies that suppressed Black homeownership and wealth in the community for generations.
The case is now expected to move forward with the DOJ as an active party, raising the stakes considerably for a program that has become a model — and a target — nationwide.
