Washington State’s Race-Based Housing Finance Program Faces Federal Probe
25th March 2026
The Trump administration’s housing department launched an investigation into the Washington State Housing Finance Commission for allegedly violating the Fair Housing Act via its race-based housing finance program, according to a March 24 press release.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) notified the commission of the investigation into the state’s Covenant Homeownership Program.
Launched in 2024, the program offers down payment and closing cost assistance to homeowners, which, according to its website, seeks to rectify “state-sanctioned racial discrimination in housing.” Applicants for the program must have a household income at or below 120 percent of the area median income, and be a first-time homebuyer who had family living in the state before April 1968. Also, those relatives must have been black, Hispanic, Native American/Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Korean, or Asian Indian.
Persons of European, Japanese, Arab, or Jewish ancestry do not appear to qualify, said the HUD statement.