Washington state launches race-based home loan program

A Washington state home loan program promises to counter racial discrimination by limiting the ethnicities of those eligible for its services.

The Covenant Homeownership Program is a product of the state’s 2023 Covenant Homeownership Act, which received bipartisan support in the state legislature. That law directed the Washington State Housing Finance Commission to conduct a study on ways to reverse “racial disparities in home ownership.”

“The Covenant Homeownership Act acknowledges the State government’s role as both an active and passive participant in generations of discriminatory policies and practices that created barriers to credit and homeownership for historically marginalized communities in Washington and that these discriminatory actions continue to impact these communities today,” the study reads.