SANTA MONICA, Calif. (KNX) — The city of Santa Monica is calling home the hundreds of Black families who were forced out during construction of the Interstate 10 Freeway and other urban development projects of the 1950s.
Starting in January, the city will be offering affordable housing to those former residents and their descendants, according to a report from The Los Angeles Times.
An estimated 600 families lost their homes when the I-10 was built through the Pico neighborhood, according to the Times.
Now, those families will be offered priority access to apartments with below-market rents in the hopes that they’ll return to Santa Monica.
Affordable housing will also be available for families removed from the Belmar Triangle, another predominantly Black area bulldozed by the city to build the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
“We will be able to right a historic wrong,” Santa Monica City Councilmember Kristin McCowan told the newspaper. “Eventually, we’re going to do that for more and more people. And if other communities start to do their share, you can see a real tidal wave potentially across the country.”
While the city program initially will only be open to 100 displaced families or their descendants who earn limited incomes, city leaders hope their efforts will grow into a national model to address past racist policies.
Nationwide, more than one million people lost their homes in just the first two decades of interstate construction alone, as highway planners targeted many Black neighborhoods for destruction, and displaced families often received little compensation, according to the publication.
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