Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg announced Monday, April 9, that the city will give special consideration to startups seeking public grants who put services and products in low-income areas, reports The Sacramento Bee.
The $1 million in public grants is available to technology startups and will only go to companies which help elevate black and brown low-income communities. This is an attempt to get these companies more involved in providing opportunities to those often overlooked. After the shooting death of Stephon Clark, Steinberg has answered the call from activists who want bigger city investments.
The 22-year-old father of two was shot at 20 times by Sacramento police officers in his grandparents' backyard March 18. The officers were responding to a 911 call claiming that a man with a "tool bar" was allegedly vandalizing cars in Clark's neighborhood.
Officers suspected Clark was the culprit.
At the time of the shooting, authorities claimed Clark was armed and posed a threat to police on the scene; however, that was not the case. New details about the shooting were released in the days following revealing Clark had only a cellphone in his hand. An independent autopsy conducted by a doctor hired by Clark's family also revealed that eight of the shots fired penetrated the victim's body from behind or the side.
“We all recognize that we must connect what is a disconnect between the great Sacramento renaissance and all the excitement about the future of our city and its economy, we must connect that renaissance to our neighborhoods in much more purposeful and significant ways,” Steinberg said.
In the past, Sacramento has awarded 15 grants in 2016 totaling $953,000. Startups can apply for grants valued between $20,000 and $250,000 from the city’s Rapid Acceleration, Innovation and Leadership in Sacramento (RAILS) grant program. Companies that hire high school students from the mayor's Thousand Strong internship program for low-income city residents will also get special priority.
Pastor Les Simmons of the South Sacramento Christian Center said the new initiative is a step toward creating economic equity within the city.
"Neighborhoods in urban black communities have not been given a fair chance to have economic development in the renaissance that is happening in other parts of this great Sacramento," Simmons said. "In order to be great, we have to reach down to the very lowest of low, to those people who are hurting the most and pull them up."
