The Department of Justice (DOJ) has joined a lawsuit against the city of Evanston, a Chicago suburb, alleging the city’s housing reparations program is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit alleges that Evanston has maintained the “racially discriminatory” program since 2021, and that it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fair Housing Act.
The lawsuit estimates Evanston has distributed $3.525 million through this program to at least 141 applicants in total. The Chicago Tribune put the number at $5.03 million distributed to 203 applicants, according to a September 2024 report. The Chicago Tribune claims the city put $1.36 million towards home improvement for black residents, mortgage assistance for black residents, or the down payment for a house for black residents. The city spent $3.69 million on “direct cash benefits” for eligible black applicants, according to the Chicago Tribune. The cash was reportedly tax exempt. (RELATED: I’m A Georgetown Student. Here’s How My University Hides Its Illegal DEI Agenda)
The lawsuit also notes that Evanston allegedly permitted participants in the program to “receive an unrestricted cash payment” in the name of reparations.
Plaintiffs claim the city “has offered and distributed unrestricted cash payments and financial assistance for purchasing, constructing, improving, repairing, or maintaining housing in the City, exclusively to current or former black residents who lived in the City as adults between 1919 and 1969, and to their children, grand-children, and great-grand-children.”
The Evanston city website has a detailed page regarding “local reparations,” including the “Restorative Housing Program.”
Evanston’s “first in the nation” reparations program is discriminatory and illegal. @CivilRights sued the city today challenging the program. ⁰⁰Other cities are on notice: discriminate against residents — you’ll hear from us!https://t.co/1KgfQM02l1
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) June 16, 2026
The website claims that any Evanston resident who is black or African American and has “origins in any of the Black racial and ethnic groups of Africa” is eligible for participation in the reparations program.
The goal of the Restorative Housing Program is to increase black homeownership and “build the wealth” of black Evanston residents, among other explicitly race-based goals meant to improve the financial standing of black residents. (RELATED: DOJ Accuses Yale Medical School Of Race-Based Discrimination)
The lawsuit claims that Evanston proceeded with its reparations program even after being warned by former White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray that the program was likely unconstitutional, given its race-based nature.
“Under the pretext of paying reparations for events more than 100 years ago, the City of Evanston has chosen to distribute millions of dollars in cash and housing benefits to people because of the color of their skin or the color of the skin of their parents, grandparents, or great grandparents,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division in a statement. “There are sound ways for a city to remedy past discrimination or direct resources to its most vulnerable citizens and neighborhoods. Simply handing out money based on race, however, is not the answer. It is race discrimination, pure and simple. And it is illegal.”