City of Palm Springs offers to pay $4.3 million to settle ongoing claim over Section 14

The Palm Springs City Council has offered to settle the claim for damages filed against the city over the Section 14 evictions by paying 145 households about $30,000 each for what it says was the wrongful destruction of homes that members of those households — or their ancestors — once lived in.

The council made the decision to make that offer during a lengthy closed session held Thursday at which the council also committed to take a number of actions to address what it says was the harm caused by the Section 14 evictions.

Following the closed session, Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein announced several of those actions, which included putting unspecified amounts of money into both a land trust to fund the construction of affordable housing in the city and programs to help support the launching of new businesses based in underserved communities.

He also reiterated that the council believes it acted wrongfully in allowing city staff and resources to be used to burn and demolish homes on Section 14.

It is widely accepted that city workers and funds were used to destroy some homes on Section 14 during a period when the land was being cleared, because of both the tribal owner's desire to redevelop the land and some agencies concerns about deteriorating health conditions in the area.

However, the issue has been subject to ongoing disagreement and debate with some saying the city did nothing wrong because the destructions were done at the behest of the tribal owners and only after the city verified that those living in the homes had been evicted, with the city reimbursed by the Federal government for the cost of the evictions.

Bernstein also said the council had given City Attorney Jeffrey Ballinger new direction on how to deal the legal claim, which was filed against the city in 2021 and calls for the city to provide compensation to families who lived in homes that were destroyed on Section 14 in the 1950s and 1960s. He did not elaborate further on what that direction was, however.

But an email sent by Ballinger to attorneys for the group that filed the claim, which the city shared with The Desert Sun Friday, details the city’s offer, which would see the city pay a total of about $4.3 million to the 145 households to resolve the claim.

What is Section 14?

Section 14 is a one-square-mile section of land adjacent to downtown Palm Springs owned by members of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. For decades, many people of color either rented or built their own homes there, in part because racist housing policies denied them the ability to buy homes elsewhere in the city.

The clearing of the land and evictions of residents followed federal decisions allowing tribal members to enter into long-term leases that, for the first time, made possible business and residential development on land they owned.

The clearing also followed years of debate about how to respond to poor living conditions in parts of Section 14, including lack of trash service or adequate water supply. Two women who lived in the area as children told The Desert Sun for a 2016 article that there was wide disparity in living conditions, with some people in safe, well-built houses like their family's and other people in trailers or shacks. Some of the homes were ultimately declared unsafe and destroyed.

Ballinger explains in the email that the offer is the latest step in a back-and-forth between the city and the Section 14 survivors group that had previously seen the city express it was willing to pay damages for “verifiable real and personal property losses of those evicted in the 1960s.”

Ballinger states in the email that the city has reviewed unspecified public records that demonstrate the city was “involved, in some way, in the demolition/burning of no more than 145 houses, following eviction by the landlords.” The email does not state who those landlords were, but it is widely understood that the destroyed homes were located on land that was owned by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, which the tribe had leased out in both formal and informal arrangements for decades.

Ballinger also wrote that the records related to a court case in which a resident of Section 14 tried to sue the city over what he claimed was the wrongful destruction of his home show that a “realistic” value of a home on Section 14 in 1965 was $2,000. Ballinger continues that based on that value and the assumption that each house contained $1,000 worth of personal property, the city is willing to pay today’s equivalent of $3,000 per house — which is $29,494.81 today, the amount that Ballinger wrote that the city is willing to pay for each household.

The email also states that the city would be willing to seek outside funding from the state or Federal government or other outside funding sources to supplement those amounts and that the city would welcome the group’s support in seeking that funding.

Ballinger also added that the city is willing to make payments to those who lived in the homes at the time they were destroyed or their descendants provided that it can be verified the residents were living in the house. It does not, however, elaborate on how that verification would occur.

“I think you will agree that this offer of monetary damages, and the potential for a resolution of these issues, for these Section 14 Survivors is a historic move,” the email reads.

The email concludes by asking the survivor’s group to “give this offer serious consideration for what could be truly a historic resolution in reparative justice.”

Ballinger’s email also details previous negotiations between the city and the survivor's group leading up to the city's offer in which the city had said it would be willing to pay for damages for “verifiable and real property losses of those evicted from Section 14 in the 1960s” and the group said it would be willing to agree to have the city compensate the owners of 350 houses at a present-day value of $490,000 to $1 million per house.

The offer came during the same closed session in which Bernstein said the city affirmed the city council remained committed to hiring a consultant to do independent historical research on Section 14, something it decided to do almost a year ago in a split vote, but has not done. He said the council directed staff to report back on the hiring process for the consultant within 90 days.

A majority of the city council consisting of Bernstein and councilmembers Lisa Middleton and Ron deHarte said during a meeting last year that they would not make a decision about whether to pay reparations until a hired consultant had completed that verification process. Neither Bernstein’s comments or Ballinger’s email state why the city has made the decision to change course and make a financial offer to settle the claim before such a consultant has been hired.

This is a developing story.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: City of Palm Springs offers to pay Section 14 Survivors $4.3 million