RICHMOND — By means of a $1.5 million allocation, Richmond councilmembers hope to develop a transparent image of the problems confronted by its Black residents and to fund options to uplift that section of the neighborhood.
The cash permitted Tuesday will go towards creating the town’s first State of Black Richmond Report and Black Resiliency Undertaking and Fund, an initiative introduced ahead by Councilmember Doria Robinson, a lifelong Richmond resident involved by what she stated has been “an explicit lack of investment” within the metropolis’s Black neighborhood for many years.
The objective, Robinson stated, is to deeply consider the historic points Black residents have confronted, together with homelessness, limitations to steady housing, poor well being outcomes, much less entry to satisfactory schooling, decrease commencement charges and violence. A neighborhood advisory committee would then create suggestions for options and the town would search out philanthropic assist to assist see these ideas actualized.
“When you have multiple problems hitting a population in this way, you focus your efforts just like in an emergency room,” Robinson stated. “You might have a whole bunch of people come in. Who do you take first? The folks having the most problems, the gun shot victims, the person having a heart attack, the people having the most acute problems.”
Whereas the council unanimously backed Robinson’s initiative, councilmembers Soheila Bana and Jamelia Brown shared issues about probably spending metropolis cash on research that exist already or hiring a marketing consultant when some work might be finished by metropolis workers.
Brown famous that Contra Costa County labored with the agency Ceres Coverage Analysis to check disparities within the Black neighborhood, together with in Richmond, and doable options as a part of its efforts to create an African American Holistic Wellness and Useful resource Hub.
“I’m definitely for this project, by all means. I just want to make sure that we’re not duplicating resources in terms of studies that exist that have already been covered that already tell us the state of Black residents in Richmond and Contra Costa County overall,” Brown stated.
Robinson clarified that new research would solely be carried out if info holes have been found after current analysis and information was gathered.
And whereas current reviews do deal with a number of the underlying points dealing with Black residents, Robinson burdened the significance of aggregating information particular to Richmond’s Black residents so the town can take a holistic method to remedying issues and uplifting these struggling most.
A lot of the preliminary work might be carried out by in-house analyst and public well being knowledgeable Yahna Williamson below the steering of Deputy Metropolis Supervisor Lashonda White, Metropolis Supervisor Shasa Curl stated.
Further assist could possibly be sought out if wanted, protecting prices to a minimal and preserving the remaining funding for the Black Resiliency Undertaking and Fund, Curl stated.
Below Robinson’s proposal, which was co-sponsored by councilmembers Claudia Jimenez and Sue Wilson, the undertaking and funds can be topic to oversight by a neighborhood advisory physique who would make suggestions to the council who can have the last word say on how the funds are spent.
The proposal acquired sturdy backing from Vice Mayor Cesar Zepeda, who known as it a council obligation, and Jimenez, who in contrast the initiative to the town’s current assist for immigrants dealing with elevated threats of deportation by the Trump administration.
“We supported the immigrant community, and particularly the undocumented community, with a fund,” Jimenez stated. “I think that this is how we show solidarity also to other communities, in particular the Black community who has been left out from investments for a long time.”
