Washington State is a Leader in Wealth-Building Efforts in Historically Excluded Communities
Several recent policy efforts in Washington State have positioned it as a potential model for other states seeking to address racial wealth disparities and build long-term economic opportunity. These efforts span anti-poverty planning, community reinvestment, homeownership programs, and new strategies for affordable housing production.
A 10-Year Plan to Dismantle Poverty
In 2020, Washington released a comprehensive 10-Year Plan to Dismantle Poverty. The plan was the product of a multi-agency Poverty Reduction Workgroup and includes recommendations on undoing structural racism, expanding opportunity, ensuring foundational wellbeing, decriminalizing poverty, and preparing for the future of work.
The plan also emphasized accountability, embedding measurable goals and creating mechanisms for tracking progress. It has served as a foundation for several policy initiatives that followed.
Having worked on two reports below that reference the 10-Year Plan to Dismantle Poverty, I can attest to it’s importance as a guiding document (and for how magical and time-saving it isl it is to actually read reports and incorporate their findings and recommendations years later).
The Community Reinvestment Plan
The Community Reinvestment Program (CRP), administered by the Washington State Department of Commerce, is a state initiative designed “to uplift communities disproportionately harmed by the war on drugs.” Washington State Department of Commerce
Origins and statutory mandate
In 2022, the Washington Legislature created a Community Reinvestment Account and allocated $200 million to redress the racial, economic, and social inequities arising from the design and enforcement of state and federal drug laws. The Legislature specified four core program areas for investment:
Economic development
Civil and criminal legal assistance
Community-based violence intervention and prevention
Reentry services
The Department of Commerce, in partnership with the Office of Equity, consulted with communities statewide to develop a Community Reinvestment Plan for the 2023–2025 biennium. That plan laid out recommendations for distributing the funds across more than 17 distinct grant programs, some extending existing services and others introducing new interventions.
The statute also refined the definition of “by-and-for” organizations—organizations operated by and for historically marginalized populations (e.g. Black, Latine, Native American, Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities) are explicitly included in the eligible set.
Key objectives and features
Statewide partnership and community design
CRP emphasizes collaborative design, granting agencies and community actors input into how funds should be used locally. It is explicitly framed not merely as a top-down grant program but as a vehicle for “lasting economic benefits, build wealth, and ensure everyone has a fair chance at success.”Targeted investments across multiple domains
Rather than limiting funding to a single domain (e.g. small business grants), CRP invests both upstream and downstream:Economic development & small business support
Programs under CRP fund small / micro enterprises led by impacted communities, helping with capacity building, organizational growth, workforce linkages, and scaling.Legal assistance
CRP allocates funds to civil and criminal legal aid, helping individuals navigate the justice system, remove barriers (like debt, fines, incarceration histories), and address legal constraints that impede economic mobility.Violence intervention / prevention
CRP supports community-led efforts to reduce harms in neighborhoods, such as prevention programs and community safety models.Reentry services
Funding supports interventions for people returning from incarceration, helping with reintegration, housing, employment, wraparound supports, and reducing recidivism.Scale of anticipated impact
CRP is expected to generate up to $1.6 billion in economic benefits for targeted communities over the lifespan of the program.
In 2025, the Legislature appropriated an additional $50 million for CRP (for the 2025–2027 period). While Commerce is not legally bound to replicate the exact allocations of the initial plan, it is required to distribute funds across the same program areas (economic development, legal assistance, violence prevention, reentry) in roughly similar proportions.
The Covenant Homeownership Act and Program
In 2023, Washington passed the Covenant Homeownership Act. The legislation acknowledged the role of racially restrictive covenants, redlining, and other discriminatory state-sanctioned practices in limiting homeownership opportunities.
The Act established the Covenant Homeownership Program, which provides down payment and closing cost assistance to first-time homebuyers who can demonstrate family ties to Washington prior to 1968 and identify as part of a racial or ethnic group historically affected by housing discrimination.
The program was informed by a 2024 study conducted by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, which documented the long-term effects of discriminatory housing practices on wealth accumulation.
The name “Covenant” refers to the racially restrictive covenants that were legally recorded in many neighborhoods to keep people out based on race or religion. The Act frames this as part of a broader legacy of state-sanctioned housing discrimination (alongside redlining, appraisal bias, exclusionary zoning) that still influences homeownership and wealth gaps.
The Act mandated a Covenant Homeownership Study, developed by the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), Abt Associates, the Northwest Fair Housing Alliance, and the Fair Housing Center of Washington. The study documented historic discrimination in Washington, assessed its impacts on communities today, and made recommendations on what assistance would be needed to remedy those harms.
Eligibility Criteria
Here are the main eligibility conditions:
Pre-1968 Washington connection or descent: The applicant (or their parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent) must have lived in Washington before April 1968.
That person (the ancestor or applicant) must belong to a racial or ethnic group specifically identified in the Covenant Study as having been harmed by discrimination (e.g. Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, or other groups in the study).
The applicant must be a first-time homebuyer, broadly defined (for example, if they haven’t owned a home in the past three years, or in some cases only owned through marriage).
The buyer must meet income limits. As of the 2025 updates, the program allows up to 120% of Area Median Income (AMI) in many counties.
For forgiveness eligibility, the buyer typically must have been at or below 80% AMI at the time of purchase, among other criteria.
The applicant must prove documentation of both race/ethnicity and pre-1968 residency. The Commission intends to be somewhat flexible in acceptable documentation (e.g. birth/death certificates, school records, church records, newspapers, church records, probate records, census, genealogical records) to accommodate challenges of historic documentation.
The Covenant Program is among the first (if not the first) state-level housing programs to explicitly tie eligibility to historic discrimination. It combines corrective subsidy (down payment / closing cost assistance) with structural accountability (studies, reporting, oversight). The program’s funding mechanism (document recording fee) embeds a revenue source linked to housing transactions. The 2025 adjustments (increased income limits, expanded forgiveness) suggest adaptability and responsiveness. A pending lawsuit introduces uncertainty and tests the legal durability of a race-conscious remedy in housing.
The Black Home Initiative and 1DROP
The Black Home Initiative (BHI) was created to expand Black homeownership, particularly in South Seattle, South King County, and North Pierce County. The initiative brings together more than 100 partner organizations to increase the supply of affordable homes, provide navigation and counseling to buyers, and improve financing access.
BHI helped catalyze 1DROP, a developer-focused collective designed to expand the capacity of underrepresented real estate developers. 1DROP provides mentorship, co-development partnerships, and training opportunities.
The Comprehensive and Scalable Starter Home Production Plan
The Comprehensive and Scalable Starter Home Production Plan was developed by Civic Commons and BHI, with support from the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. It aims to address housing supply shortages by scaling production of affordable “starter homes” through modular and systems-based construction methods.
The plan includes two playbooks:
An Ecosystem Playbook for legislators and policymakers.
A Demonstration Playbook for testing scalable housing models.
Beyond expanding affordable housing, the plan emphasizes the role of entrepreneurial developers and associated industries in wealth-building.
Observations
Taken together, these efforts represent a layered strategy:
Long-term planning and accountability through the 10-Year Plan.
Targeted reinvestment through the Community Reinvestment Plan.
Corrective housing assistance through the Covenant Homeownership Program.
Regional collaboration and developer capacity-building through the Black Home Initiative and 1DROP.
Supply-side interventions through the Starter Home Production Plan.
Most importantly and essentially when you dive into the data in the past 6-12 months you see hundreds of new Black Washingtonians leveraging BHI supports, Covenant Homeownership resources, and CRP funding to realize the dream of homeownership, without deed restrictions or limited equity arrangements, who could not have become asset owners without these programs.
For other states, Washington illustrates how statewide planning, legislation, and community-based partnerships can be linked to address both the symptoms and root causes of racialized wealth gaps.