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Washington is undertaking a novel new attempt to address decades of housing discrimination.
The state launched a program Monday offering homebuying assistance to Washingtonians who faced housing discrimination in the early to mid-20th century and their descendants.
Qualifying homebuyers can now apply through their lenders for zero-interest loans to help fund down payments and closing costs. The loans, funded by a fee on recorded real estate documents, do not need to be repaid until the homeowner sells or refinances the property.
An explicit effort to redress the lasting effects of discrimination, the Covenant Homeownership Program could help hundreds of people of color become homeowners in Washington but may also face legal challenges.
The assistance focuses on people who may have been subject to racially restrictive covenants, one of the various tools of housing discrimination that were common across America in the early 1900s. The widely used documents in property deeds often barred people of color and Jewish people from certain properties.
Researchers from the University of Washington and Eastern Washington University have documented tens of thousands of Washington properties once covered by racial covenants. In many cases, the covenants remain on the books today, although they are no longer enforceable.
The new assistance is open to Washingtonians who can show either that they lived in the state before April 1968, when the Fair Housing Act outlawed housing discrimination, or that they are the descendant of a parent or grandparent who lived in the state at that time.
State guidelines allow homebuyers to qualify if they are Black, Hispanic, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Korean or Asian Indian.
While various groups, including Jewish people, experienced “well-documented, egregious acts of discrimination,” the qualifying groups “are still being impacted most deeply” or face notable homeownership gaps, wrote the authors of a state-commissioned study, whose findings informed the design of the program.
Homebuyers must make the area median income in their county or less, about $147,000 per household in King County, and must meet a broad definition of first-time homebuyers. That includes people who haven’t owned a home in at least three years, have only owned a mobile home, or are single parents who only owned a home while married to a former spouse.
To qualify, homebuyers should ask their mortgage lender about the program or call the state’s homeownership hotline at 1-877-894-4663. Lenders will work with buyers to verify their family history documentation.
State responsibility
The effects of restrictive covenants and other types of housing discrimination have been far-reaching in America, contributing to a racial gap in homeownership and cementing the segregation patterns that shaped cities like Seattle.
