Reparations for Descendants of WA Homebuyers Who Experienced Racially Restrictive Covenants
“A History of Housing Discrimination – A Commitment to Make It Right”
– Washington State Housing Finance Commission
The history of RARE and its founders is deeply intertwined with the WA Covenant Homeownership Program. The state’s effort towards reparations to descendants of those impacted by housing and/or banking discrimination passed in Spring of 2023 and is administered by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission.
As RARE’s documentary, Roosevelt High School: Beyond Black and White highlights, the founders of RARE were participants of the voluntary busing program that aimed to desegregate Seattle Public Schools.
Because residential segregation (a legacy of redlining) had concentrated Black and other students of color in certain neighborhoods and schools, the busing program was designed to transport students from these neighborhoods to schools in predominantly white areas – and vice versa – in an attempt to achieve racial balance.
A 2024 National Fair Housing Alliance study “confirmed that state institutions played both active and passive roles in perpetuating housing discrimination against a range of marginalized groups. Secondly, it finds that impacts of that discrimination are still felt today in the lower homeownership rates and net worth of many of those groups. Third, the research shows that without specifically aiming to help these groups that were excluded for so long, a program would be ineffective in remedying the disparities.”
The Covenant Homeownership Program “provides down payment and closing cost assistance for first-time home buyers in the form of a loan, secondary to the primary mortgage loan” for (general eligibility):
- Household income at or below 100% of the Area Median Income (AMI). NOTE: On July 28, 2025, due to 2025 legislative action, the program will be open to home buyers earning up to 120% of Area Median Income.
- First-time home buyer.
- The home-buyer or a parent/grandparent/great-grandparent lived in Washington state before April 1968.
- The person who lived in Washington before April 1968 is Black, Hispanic, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander*, Korean or Asian Indian.
*Following the U.S. Census definitions, “Pacific Islander” includes individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands, including, for example, Samoan, Chamorro, Tongan, Fijian, and Marshallese.
(points above provided by Washington State Housing Finance Commission)
Learn more about the program and legislative updates on the Washington State Housing Finance Commission’s site: https://wshfc.org/covenant/
