WA State Claims Racial Inequality in 2022 Home Ownership

According to a report released by the Washington State Department of Commerce, there is a large disparity between the number of homes owned by non-minority, or white families, and black, indigenous, Hispanic and other minorities.

   DOC claims 140K minorities would need to buy a home to make it even

According to the Department of Commerce:

"A new Washington state report highlights the stark reality that Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) would need to buy more than 140,000 houses in the state to achieve parity with white homeownership on a percentage basis.  The housing gap is even more significant today than in the 1960s, when housing discrimination and redlining were legal."

According to DOC, there is a new 12-step program coming out of the Homeownership Disparities Work Group (state project) which includes some of the following steps:

"Increase the amount of funding available for direct assistance to homebuyers and homeowners.

 Increase biennial state funding for affordable homeownership programs, including land acquisition and pre-development costs."

The report does not specifically state whether state or taxpayer money will directly be used to fund homeownership programs (such as providing mortgages).

Get our free mobile app

And, there is also this part of the 12-step plan:

"Fund a technical assistance/capacity-building program to build the nonprofit organizational infrastructure to develop, finance, facilitate, build, and steward all types of affordable homeownership projects."

  A read of the report's recommendations appears the legislature will be asked to greatly increase funding for low-income minority homebuying assistance programs. There were some financial figures reported but were mostly what was previously allocated. No specific numbers as to how much the state wants to spend on these home ownership plans.