Palm Springs to pay $5.9 million in reparations to Black and Latino families evicted from homes

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KABC) -- The Palm Springs City Council has voted unanimously to approve $5.9 million in reparations for families who were forcibly removed from their homes on a stretch of land known as Section 14 in the 1950s and 1960s.

A group of people who grew up in the area, known as the "Section 14 Survivors," applauded the city's decision at a news conference Friday morning.

"We hope that by working in collaboration with the city of Palm Springs we can show other cities throughout the state of California that is possible to rectify racial harms," said attorney Areva Martin, who represents the group.

Section 14 was land owned by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians; the properties were leased to families of color.

But starting in 1959 the city of Palm Springs took over the land and forced the residents out.

"The city took control over this area and burned and bulldozed us out," said Pearl Devers, who grew up in Section 14. "(It happened) without sufficient, proper and in some cases no notice at all.

"People went to school and work and came home to find their home and possessions gone."

Their efforts to get justice lasted decades. The city of Palm Springs issued a public apology in 2021.

Not only did the City Council vote to award survivors $5.9 million in reparations, but also approved renaming a public park and building a monument on the land listing the names of their ancestors.

"When we started this journey, we had to overcome a narrative that had taken root in this community," said Martin. "And that was a narrative that somehow Section 14 was a public nuisance -- that it was an eyesore, that the families were not deserving, that this was a community that should have been burned down and bulldozed.

"And so we had to overcome that, and it took a lot."