Section 14, Palm Springs: Demolitions, Reparations, and Settlement

Section 14 is a one-square-mile tract of Agua Caliente tribal land in downtown Palm Springs, California, where between the 1930s and late 1960s the city, working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and state officials, burned and demolished the homes of hundreds of Black, Latino, and Filipino families who had been pushed onto the land by racial housing covenants that barred them from the rest of the city. A 1968 California attorney general report called the destruction a “city-engineered holocaust.”¹ In November 2024 the Palm Springs City Council unanimously approved a $5.9 million cash settlement for verified survivors and descendants, alongside roughly $21 million in separate commitments to housing and economic development programs.² The city confirmed full payment of the $5.9 million in October 2025.³

A Checkerboard of Tribal Land

Section 14 sits inside an unusual land pattern created in the 1800s, when the federal government granted the Southern Pacific Railroad odd-numbered square-mile sections across Southern California and then designated the even-numbered sections as the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation. The result is a checkerboard of alternating tribal and non-tribal squares across the Coachella Valley, with about 7,000 acres falling inside Palm Springs city limits.⁴ Section 14 is one of those tribal squares, and it happens to sit directly next to downtown Palm Springs.⁵

Who Lived in Section 14

Starting in the 1940s, Section 14 became home to a densely populated community of primarily Black, Latino, and Filipino residents. They lived there not by choice but by exclusion: restrictive housing covenants, discriminatory lending, and racist real estate practices kept people of color out of the rest of Palm Springs. Agua Caliente tribal members living in the area typically numbered fewer than 50 at any given time.⁶

Families built houses, raised children, and founded institutions, including the first NAACP chapter in Section 14. Pearl Devers, who would later lead the survivors’ advocacy group, grew up in a home her father, a carpenter, built himself. Her mother worked as a domestic housekeeper for clients including Lucille Ball and the family of Amelia Earhart.¹ As Palm Springs transformed into a resort destination for the wealthy, the land Section 14 sat on became increasingly valuable to outside developers.⁷

What the City Did, 1936 to 1969

The destruction of Section 14 was not one event. It was a series of coordinated clearance campaigns stretching across three decades, with government officials at the city, state, federal, and tribal levels participating at different points and justifying their actions as public health enforcement. The Section 14 Historical Context Study, commissioned by the City of Palm Springs and prepared by the Architectural Resources Group, identified five major abatement campaigns:⁸

1936–1937, led by the State of California before Palm Springs incorporated as a city.
1948–1953, with the city becoming directly involved in 1948 and assuming management and funding by 1950.
1954–1960.
1961–1962.
1965–1966, with cleanup extending into 1969. This final period saw the majority of demolitions.

The city claimed authority to enforce its building codes on federal trust land through a reading of Public Law 280 and related statutes. In 1977 a court held that interpretation was wrong. By then the neighborhood was already gone.⁶

How the Demolitions Happened

The City of Palm Springs planned, funded, and carried out the physical destruction, which included burning and demolishing homes.⁹ The Bureau of Indian Affairs served as a liaison, coordinating legal procedures, confirming notice delivery, and approving burn permits. A 1965 BIA memorandum stated that “to the best of our knowledge, there are no buildings in the area worth saving” and directed landlords to issue 30-day eviction notices.¹⁰ A 1967 city resolution authorized a $5,000 supply contract with the federal government for demolition and burning of structures “as mutually agreed upon by the City and Bureau of Indian Affairs.”¹¹

A critical factor was the conservatorship system. Many Agua Caliente tribal members at the time had their estates managed by court-appointed non-Native guardians rather than by the tribal members themselves. The BIA and these guardians approved lease terminations, burn permits, and property demolitions without full transparency or consent of the tribal landowners.¹⁰ Documentation from the period shows the city frequently failed to honor the required 30-day notice periods and in many instances destroyed personal property alongside the homes.⁶

Official recordkeeping of the abatements was, in the words of the Historical Context Study, “essentially nonexistent or non-surviving,” so the total number of displaced residents cannot be determined with certainty. The study identified approximately 197 homes demolished.² The cleared land was redeveloped for commercial use, including a convention center, hotels, and eventually a casino.¹²

Pearl Devers was twelve when the fires began. Her family moved about six times as their homes were destroyed. Her father tried to get a loan to relocate the house but was refused because of his race. According to Devers, the loss broke him; he turned to alcohol and “died a brokenhearted man.”¹

The Push for Reparations

For decades the history received little public attention. The city issued a formal public apology in 2021.¹³ But it was the organized effort of displaced families themselves that forced a reckoning.

The Section 14 Survivors, an advocacy group founded by Pearl Devers, began meeting with the City Council in April 2022. Civil rights attorney Areva Martin of Martin & Martin, LLP serves as lead counsel. The group compiled a list of over 300 survivors and descendants, conducted a harm assessment, and commissioned a preliminary economic study estimating damages between $400 million and $2 billion.¹⁴ In November 2022 the group filed a formal government claim against the City of Palm Springs, a legal prerequisite to a lawsuit.¹⁵ After nearly two years of negotiations, in November 2024 the City Council voted 5-0 to approve a settlement package.¹⁶

What the 2024 Settlement Includes

The agreement has two parts, and the line between them became a public dispute between the city and the survivors’ attorney.

The Cash Settlement

The legally binding settlement is $5.91 million in direct financial compensation for verified survivors and descendants. In exchange, the city required signed legal waivers and releases from at least 1,200 former residents and descendants.¹⁷ Applicants had to submit three documents verifying residency during the clearance period. Accepted documentation included school records, old phone books, and marriage certificates.¹⁸

Attorney Areva Martin publicly characterized the total agreement as worth $27 million. The city issued a formal advisory calling that figure “INCORRECT” and insisting the legally binding settlement was $5.9 million.¹⁹

Housing, Economic, and Cultural Commitments

Separate from the cash settlement, the city committed to roughly $21 million in programs that are not legally tied to the settlement agreement:²⁰

Affordable housing of $20 million planned over a decade, split between a $10 million First-Time Homebuyer Assistance Program and $10 million to establish a Community Land Trust, both funded from the city’s transient occupancy tax. Former Section 14 families receive priority access, with a 60-day reservation period for survivors and descendants.
Small-business support of $1 million through a partnership with the Caravanserai Project providing grants and low-interest loans, with dedicated outreach to Section 14 families.
Cultural and memorial initiatives, including a public memorial, a future park dedicated to the Section 14 community, consideration of renaming a community park, and letters of support for a potential Section 14 Cultural and Racial Healing Center. The city is not obligated to fund the center or provide land for it.

Payment and Where Things Stand

Claimants signed the settlement agreement on September 4, 2025, and the city signed on September 5. By October 6, the city had received nearly 1,500 signed waivers, exceeding the 1,200 threshold. On October 7, the city confirmed it had transferred the full $5.9 million to the legal representatives of the survivors and descendants.²¹ The city authorized the named claimant and their attorneys to handle individual disbursement and stated it “does not get involved in how the claimants and their attorneys share in the proceeds.”³ Devers said the organization used an independent third-party administrator and a retired judge to oversee the process.²²

Not everyone accepted the agreement. A petition signed by 37 people, including three survivors, argued the $5.91 million did not go far enough. Charlie Johnson, a former Section 14 resident who organized the petition, said it was meant to preserve legal standing for the signatories to pursue a separate case, and he objected particularly to the exclusion of the $20 million housing commitment and the $1 million economic development fund from the legally binding settlement terms. Another dissident, Yvonne Bryant, refused to sign a release waiver for her father’s claim, citing a lack of transparency about the specific payout amount.²³ Martin responded that the dissenters’ issues were with the city, not with the Section 14 Survivors group. Devers said most opponents were individuals who did not participate in the process or did not meet documentation requirements.²²

The non-settlement programs have moved more slowly. The First-Time Homebuyer Assistance Program, which was to be administered through the Riverside County Department of Housing and Workforce Solutions at $1 million per year for up to ten years, was reviewed by the City Council in October 2025 but postponed, with the city manager and Housing Department directed to conduct community outreach and return with a revised agreement.²⁴ No public updates on the $10 million Community Land Trust have been reported as of mid-2026. The $1 million Caravanserai partnership remains categorized as an ongoing city economic development initiative.²⁰

The history itself is now being documented and displayed. The city released the Section 14 Historical Context Study on November 8, 2024, ahead of the council’s vote, and maintains a digital archive of BIA health and sanitation reports, congressional committee reports, and 1960s abatement records through its Engage Palm Springs portal.²⁰ In June 2025 the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians unveiled “Section 14: The Untold Story,” an exhibit at the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum in downtown Palm Springs featuring firsthand accounts, historical photographs, and government documents. Chairman Reid Milanovich called it “actual, true history” that had gone “untold for decades.”²⁵

1
KQED. Burned, Displaced and Fighting Back: A Battle for Reparations in Palm Springs
2
KQED. Palm Springs OKs $5.9 Million in Reparations for Black and Latino Families Whose Homes the City Burned
3
City of Palm Springs. Section 14 Financial Settlement Fulfilled
4
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. Our Story
5
National Museum of the American Indian. Section 14
6
Engage Palm Springs. Section 14 Study Key Findings
7
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Section 14 Exhibition
8
City of Palm Springs. Section 14 Historical Context Study Released
9
City of Palm Springs. Section 14 Historical Context
10
Visit Palm Springs. Section 14: The Untold Story of Palm Springs’ Heart and Heritage
11
City of Palm Springs. Section 14 Archived Documents
12
The New York Times. Section 14, Palm Springs Reparations
13
ABC7. Palm Springs to Pay $5.9 Million to Black, Latino Families Forcibly Evicted From Homes
14
Section 14 Survivors. About Us
15
The Desert Sun. Settlement Appears Far Off on Section 14 Reparations in Palm Springs
16
Martin & Martin LLP. Statement From Section 14 Survivors Attorney Areva Martin
17
City of Palm Springs. Section 14 Settlement Clarification
18
KQED. Section 14 Survivors Still Awaiting Payments From Palm Springs
19
City of Palm Springs. Section 14 Settlement Clarification
20
Engage Palm Springs. Section 14
21
KESQ. Palm Springs Finalizes $5.9M Settlement for Section 14 Survivors and Descendants
22
KESQ. Section 14: Healing or Hurting
23
KESQ. Opponents to Section 14 Settlement Say It Doesn’t Go Far Enough
24
Urban Palm Springs. First-Time Homebuyers
25
NBC Palm Springs. Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Unveils Section 14 Exhibit Honoring Tribal History and Resilience