City of Hayward, CA

07/10/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/10/2025 11:50

City of Hayward and Alameda County Ad Hoc Committee on Reparations Announce Creation of Redress Fund for former Russell City residents

Community, News Release

City of Hayward and Alameda County Ad Hoc Committee on Reparations Announce Creation of Redress Fund for former Russell City residents

Establishment of new fund is to further apologize for past city and county misuse of eminent domain and other tactics to take property from residents roughly 60 years ago.

July 10, 2025

HAYWARD, Calif., July 10, 2025-The City of Hayward and Alameda County Supervisors Elisa Márquez and Nate Miley jointly announced plans to establish a $900,000 redress fund to make amends to former Russell City residents who had property seized during the 1960s. During the period, approximately 700 parcels of Russell City land were acquired, and approximately 1,400 residents of the multi-racial, multi-ethnic Russell City community were displaced to make way for commercial and industrial redevelopment.

Under the proposed partnership, the Russell City Redress Fund will be established at a local foundation and seeded with $250,000 from the City of Hayward and $650,000 in county funds, including $400,000 from the Office of Alameda County District 2 Supervisor Elisa Márquez and $250,000 from the Office of Alameda County District 4 Supervisor Nate Miley. Both Supervisors sit on the Alameda County Ad Hoc Committee on Reparations.

"This is the direct result of the reparative justice project started in 2022, following the City Council's apology for the wrongful taking of property from the Russell City community. It is imperative that we do what we can while owners are still living," said Mayor Mark Salinas on behalf the Hayward City Council.

In 2021, the Hayward City Council issued a formal apology for the displacement of Russell City residents. The following year, the City went on to support a Russell City Reparative Justice Project which involved a community steering committee that included former Russell City residents. The steering committee presented their recommendations to the City Council in March of 2024.

At the county level, Supervisors Márquez and Miley advanced a board resolution in 2023 to formally recognize and apologize for the County of Alameda's role in the destruction of Russell City which was previously unincorporated Alameda County until it was annexed into Hayward in 1964. As a result of these concurrent city-county efforts, a partnership emerged to develop a redress fund that could be seeded by the two local government entities and further enhanced by contributions from philanthropic and business entities.

"Two years after Alameda County formally apologized for its role in the destruction of Russell City, we are progressing beyond the written word and toward tangible action through the establishment of a Russell City Redress Fund. While neither equal to nor comparable with the depth of loss experienced, this is a fundamental step towards repair and healing," shared Alameda County District 2 Supervisor Elisa Márquez.

At the County's Ad Hoc Committee on Reparations meeting this past Wednesday, Supervisor Márquez shared her personal experience attending Fairview Elementary School located in the Kelly Hill neighborhood of Hayward. It was there where she first learned of the history of Russell City. Later in the meeting, she pledged a $400,000 contribution from her office's budget toward the new fund to provide timely support for those who lived and owned property in Russell City.

District 4 Supervisor Miley, who chairs the County's Ad Hoc Committee on Reparations, also pledged $250,000 in financial support for the new Russell City Redress Fund, further recognizing the urgency to take action. "I am proud to collaborate with my colleague on the BOS to demonstrate and provide some measure of redress to the former residents of Russell City."

The Redress Fund will be used to provide direct payments to living former Russell City residents who had their property seized by Alameda County and subsequently annexed into the City of Hayward. Although the payments are not intended as compensation and do not reflect presentday value of their former property, the Russell City Redress Fund is intended to be a concrete step to further acknowledge the lasting harm associated with redevelopment of then unincorporated Russell City.

Eligibility requirements, processes for applying to receive a redress payment from the fund and the amounts of potential payments are in development and will be announced at a later date.

Download the full news release.

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