In one fell swoop, Washington Democrats expanded a racist housing reparations program that explicitly hands out zero-interest down-payment loans based not on need or merit, but on the color of your skin. You need not prove, or even allege, housing discrimination for this assistance. The state may even fully forgive housing loans.
Congratulations, we’ve officially doubled down on reverse discrimination. And we’ve given in to a Democratic lawmaker who accused critics of her bill of “want(ing) to call me a ‘monkey’ today because I want to participate in our inclusive economy.”
Second Substitute House Bill 1696 (SSHB 1696) raises the eligibility threshold for Washington’s Covenant Homeownership Program to 120% of the area median income (AMI), up from the previous 100% cap. It also authorizes full forgiveness of special-purpose credit program loans after they’ve been outstanding for at least five years for participants with household incomes at or below 80% of the AMI.
Additionally, the bill modifies the program’s oversight committee by replacing the community-based affordable housing developer representative with a nonprofit organization member who provides housing counseling to some of those historically excluded by racially restrictive covenants.
Race-based housing assistance
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jamila Taylor (D-Federal Way), said this was a response to Washington’s restrictive covenants that kept certain demographics from purchasing homes. But this program is tailor-made for black Washingtonians, not all groups impacted by restrictive covenants.
She complained in a press release that “about 69% of white households in Washington own their homes, compared to just 34% of Black households,” calling SSHB 1696 “a step toward closing the homeownership gap between Black and white households in our state.”
SSHB 1696 doesn’t stop at economic disadvantage, either.
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Who qualifies for housing reparations?
To qualify, you must “be a Washington state resident who…was or would have been excluded from homeownership in Washington state by a racially restrictive real estate covenant on or before April 11, 1968; or is a descendant of a person who meets the criteria.” Translation: your zip code circa 1967 now determines your financial privileges in 2025 (so long as you have the acceptable racial demographic).
Though Jews were impacted by restrictive covenants, they are intentionally left out of this program.
The House Bill Report proudly notes that raising the income cap to 120% of area median income “will allow more working families to qualify for assistance” and that loan forgiveness “will prevent homeowners from becoming debt-burdened.” But by making race the gatekeeper, the law undermines the very values it claims to uphold—equal treatment under the law and the American ideal that opportunity belongs to all, regardless of ancestry.
Resentment comes next
Are we to believe this program won’t stoke resentment?
When one group gets up to a $150,000 leg-up simply because of their race, you create two tiers of citizens: those who get to tap the public coffers, and those who don’t. Instead of uniting around genuine need—single parents, veterans, low-income households—we’ve divided Washingtonians by melanin. Good luck selling that as “progress.”
Of course, this program isn’t even necessary. It’s just a follow-up on Democrats’ promise of reparations. Historic covenants were outlawed nearly six decades ago. Their damage was wrong then and it’s wrong now—but do we really fix past injustices by installing new ones? By pitting neighbor against neighbor, SSHB 1696 abandons the aspiration to stop judging people based on skin color and drags Washington backward into identity politics. We should be tearing down barriers, not erecting bureaucratic checkpoints that say, “If your great-grandfather’s house deed had a racist clause, you win the lottery.”
The irony of the housing reparations program
It doesn’t take a constitutional scholar to spot the irony here: a law meant to heal racial wounds is sowing fresh discord.
And while Washington Democrats pat themselves on the back for “meaningful progress,” they ignore the bigger picture—that true equity comes from uplifting everyone in need, not cherry-picking by ancestry. Washington deserves better than a program that substitutes racial preference for real solutions.
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