Half a mil to put their thumbs up their asses instead of just literally giving that money directly as reparations 
Edit: I want to clarify, I fully support reparations, I'm just extremely frustrated knowing that, under liberal/bourgeoisie democracy, these types of efforts tend to get bogged down with means testing, and sometimes outright turn into thinly-veiled handouts to private corporations. All while the police budget is still increasing YOY.
That said, Evanston (city on Chicago's northern border) did actually manage to distribute "...$25,000 in no-strings-attached direct cash payments for those eligible. Black residents who lived in Evanston during a 50-year period of discriminatory zoning laws and their direct descendants receive priority for eligibility." So I don't want to encourage further reactionary criticisms such as mine towards this specific subcommittee if they are able to achieve at least some form of direct payments similar to Evanston's program.
Evanston involves direct cash payments. 124 residents have been approved so far out of 650 applicants. Slow, yes; nothing, absolutely not.
they should update their website
i was going to post this whole thing from their faq
i'm interested in how they got past the irs thing
Looks like they started by paying contractors for repairs/renovations done, or paying banks for new purchases, but approved a cash option in March '23.