Washington Gov. Ferguson Expands Law Helping First Time Minority Homebuyers
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon for the Civil Rights Division is not pleased.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson (D) signed a law expanding the Covenant Homeownership Program to make it easier for minorities to buy homes.
Washington passed the program two years ago, meant to help first-time homebuyers “if they’re descended from someone affected by racist real estate practices in Washington before 1968.”
🚨 BREAKING: Washington @GovBobFerguson just signed into law changes to the most outrageous, illegal reparations program in the entire country. It now GIFTS down payments, averaging $120,000, to black first-time homebuyers without ANY proof of direct housing discrimination. pic.twitter.com/dr0Xet0fHZ
— Brandi Kruse (@BrandiKruse) April 24, 2025
You have to be from these groups:
- Black
- Latino
- Indigenous
- Pacific Islander
- Korean
- Asian Indian
From The Center Square:
The Covenant Home Ownership program offers home buying assistance to minorities who have faced housing discrimination in the past. The program is open to those who lived in or had a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent living in Washington before 1968 and who meet one of the following government-defined racial identities: “Black, Hispanic, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Korean and Asian Indian.”
Launched on July 1, 2024, the program allows qualified homebuyers to apply through their lenders for zero-interest loans to help fund down payments and closing costs. The loans are funded by fees on real estate documents recorded with the state.
SSHB 1996 would increase the income threshold for applicants to 140% of the area median income and allow for loans to be fully forgiven after five years of repayment.
It would also change one of the oversight committee membership positions to include a representative from a nonprofit organization that provides housing counseling, replacing the previous requirement for a community-based organization specializing in affordable housing development.
The Democrats shot down all 15 amendments proposed by Republicans, including one banning convicted sex offenders (emphasis mine):
Rep. Dan Griffey, R-Allyn, offered an amendment that would exclude those who have been convicted of sex crimes from participating in the program.
“It might break your heart as well, Madame Speaker [Laurie Jinkins], to think that somebody that raped or abused a child or raped or abused a woman, would have preferential treatment over those who survived sexual violence,” he explained.
Griffey brought up his wife’s own trauma with sexual abuse.
“I think if it comes down to choosing one or the other, let’s choose the survivor and not the monster that did it to them,” he said.
Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo, spoke against Griffey’s amendment.
“Putting this into this bill as if that group of people had a higher propensity to create sexual abuse than anybody else, doesn’t seem logical,” Ortiz-Self said.
Is that woman serious?! My jaw literally dropped when I read her response. Someone does not watch a lot of true crime documentaries or shows.
Then again, these people think money grows on trees. One representative noted that the programs has run out of money in less than a year. The state paid out $34 million in loans!
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon for the Civil Rights Division had a simple response:
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@HarmeetKDhillon) April 24, 2025
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Comments
Interesting list of qualifiers. Even more interesting that this list, as presented, fails to include those of Japanese Ancestry (several thousand of which were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to internment camps in WWII) and those of Chinese Ancestry who also suffered from lots of discrimination, they had an Exclusion Act specifically designed to stop Chinese immigration and deny their Naturalization in large part due to racially motivated public pressure from the West Coast.
This shows how stupidly woke this farce is; they don’t recognize two groups who suffered actual harms and substitute others….what is ‘indigenous’ is that limited to someone with tribal recognition or some elastic definition? Nothing more than another bunch of AWFLs and their broken to heel partners creating a new event in their diversity olympics where various tribes battle to be perceived as the biggest victims.
Discrimination.
Illegal
Not in liberal land. Paraphrasing more or less, Pirates of the Caribbean – “The Constitution is more like guidelines rather than rules”.
As with the 2008 housing disaster, purchasing a house and maintaining the loan and house expenses is another issue. Getting a job and keeping a job as two different issues. Many times the entry into an agreement, while margin looks great but what happens afterward?
So if you buy a condo or old rural house that costs only $100,000 and pay all cash, do you get it free if you’re the right race?
How long before they are sued?
If a government wants to set up a VOLUNTARY FUND for such programs, whereby the entire budget is limited to voluntary contributions, fine.
Taxpayers, however, should not be forced to pay for such BS.
This when Washington State government is about $12B in the red.
But can I identify as belonging to one of the privileged groups? I am “indigenous.” I was effing born here.
If you’re a poor white person, you can go live on the street with the other poor white people.
But at least you can still carry a chainsaw to protect yourself,
Even in California!
Hooray for the whole Bill of Rights!
Seems plainly illegal. Can’t discriminate based on race in America.
Unconstitutional discrimination ?
Not according to Sotomayor or Ginsberg – Shuette v Bamn – her dissent stated that it was unconstitutional for the Michigan to amend its state constitution to require compliance with the 14th amendment of the US Constitution. Jackson likely to vote the same way
Aide: “Psst, Governor, that equal protection of the laws thingy.”
Ferguson: “What, again!”
One effect of this idiotic law is that it will undoubtedly raise housing prices even more. This isn’t going to end well.
AT least this is on Harmeet’s radar.
TY Mary..
Subdivision plats used to have protective covenants to the effect of “no structure shall be occupied by negroes or mexicans except as servants” as late as the early 1950’s. These were all signed by the County Commissioners on advice of bankers who wouldn’t otherwise loan the money to build the thing. And why was that? Why were these restrictions considered good business practice? Do we think we know better than they did? Apparently these people think so. They can right that wrong. Repair the damage. Etc.
The problem with reparations: when is enough? We have Section 8, Civil Rights Act, which exists specifically for moving poor people out of the ghettos and into nice neighborhoods. But. These places go downhill fast, property values go down and people who can afford it move out of there. As if those business people with the covenant restrictions were right all along… They rip everything out of context and refuse to consider reality. It is a very complex problem and it deserves more than a simple virtue signaling cure.
Most recent such covenant I have personal knowledge of was on a farmhouse just outside the Beltway in Virginia. Last family member finally died in the early 1980s, the farm was being converted into South Run Park. There was a bit of a public bobble when the existing deed was found to have a “no negro” restriction. Needless to say, it as quickly honored in the breach.
Race based deed restrictions are very common throughout southeast, Virginia, DC, Maryland.
Ted “drown em” Kennedy made a big deal out of George Bush’s dallas home having that restriction, until it was discovered his DC home had the same covenant
The house I sold last year was originally built in 1954 and has such covenants (central Austin, TX). It also has a half bathroom in the garage.
I identify as black so show me the money
Literally yesterday I left a comment on one of the Wa channels youtube that I was going to stop following Undivided, We the Governed and Wa Gun Law because it was just too depressing.
We left in 2023 and have been wondering if the state would hit rock bottom. They haven’t. They’ve kept going down hill on a rocket sled. The absence and exodus of voters like myself has strengthened their resolve. Why wouldn’t it? They’ve succeeded in one party rule. They’ve turned the government into a graft machine for connected people. They’ve got a voter based that approves every tax scheme there is. They’ve got a voter base who holds MS13 and Buffalo Bill transvestites up as heroes while 14 year old girls get mowed down on the basketball court, raped in the locker room and murdered on the freeway.
Our HVAC guy was pleased to have us as new residents in this very red state. He charges double to libtards.
I’m done saying prayers for Wa to change. Let God sort them out.
My parents were German immigrants and were discriminated against in the 1940’s. Where’s my reparations?
A former Seattleite for 40 years, now retired to southern California, I observe that the WA state Legislature has topped some of the most egregious habits of their counterpart in CA. So I switched from one basket-case state to another, but I console myself that at least we have better weather down here.
If somebody else funds your down payment or gives you a 100% or better mortgage loan, the chances that this house will go into foreclosure are 10 times higher than otherwise. Houses in foreclosure are very often damaged severely before relinquishment.
But 2008 was soooo long ago nobody can remember it. Because THIS TIME home ownership will convert spendthrifts into the financially prudent.
I recall some similar debate in 93 (Newt’s time) around what ultimately led to NINJA loans.
Look how that ended up.
This governor and his ilk are sick.
Those that can leave will increasingly do do, Those remaining in Washington will either be too poor to leave, or too rich and insulated to care about the increasing taxes, ballooning debt, and deteriorating quality of life. They will get what they deserve, and this should not be averted with any Federal bailouts. Eventually things will get so bad there that even the instigators will try to escape, but it’s likely that they will have learned nothing from the debacle, and will attempt to create similar chaos wherever they go. Therefore we should set up a national registry that will help to identify them to potential employers or other interested parties. Just listing registered Democrats from States losing population might be a good place to start.