The Field Order 15 Fund is a reparative lending and grant program in Washington state launched by HomeSight in partnership with the Black Home Initiative (BHI). The program is named after Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s 1865 Special Field Order No. 15, the origin of the "40 acres and a mule" promise.
Black people never received “40 acres and a mule” or any restitution for their enslavement. The Field Order 15 Fund aims to fulfill this abandoned equity goal. It works to close the racial wealth and homeownership gaps by empowering Black and BIPOC developers to build affordable housing.
Launched in January 2024 with a $1 M impact investment from the Seattle Foundation, the Field Order 15 Fund has also received funding from the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, Amazon, and JPMorgan Chase.
The fund provides feasibility grant capital, technical support through a pre-development checklist system, and access to low-interest pre-development loans. All of which support BIPOC developers to acquire and survey land, in addition to hiring architects, engineers, and legal counsel to create building plans and apply for permits.
The program focuses on communities in Western Washington, including Central and South Seattle, South King County, and Pierce County.
HomeSight’s Real Estate Development Director, Uche Okezie, helped conceptualize the Field Order 15 Fund. Okezie manages the project for HomeSight.
“As a Community Development Financial Institution, we have homeownership counseling, we do mortgage lending, we offer down payment assistance to income-qualified households, and we also build quality, affordable houses.” Okezie said, “But we are also a CDC – a Community Development Corporation – and our job there is to promote economic growth in the communities we serve. As a CDFI, a CDC, and a member of the BHI, this project pulls all our expertise, goals, and imperatives together in a really unique way.”
What the Field Order 15 Fund has accomplished:
HomeSight staff have reported that since January 2024, the Field Order 15 Fund has distributed $4,011,000 in Site Acquisition Equity across 5 projects, resulting in 65 units in pre-development. $3,507,285 has been approved in Pre-Development Loans across 14 projects, resulting in the development of 116 units (53 units from site acquisition equity). $1,577,250 has been approved as Feasibility Grants across 46 projects, reflecting the potential to construct an additional 592 units.
From January through September 2026, $674,505.00 in Pre-Development Loans were approved across 3 projects to construct 19 units. $176,000.00 in Feasibility Grants were approved across 5 projects to construct 37 units.
Since January 2024, the Field Order 15 Fund has worked to close the racial wealth and homeownership gaps by empowering Black and BIPOC developers to build affordable housing. The financing this fund provides has resulted in nearly 800 homes entering the development pipeline across Western Washington.
The Land Acquisition Fund was also a part of the Field Order 15 in 2025, where it supported the creation of an additional 65 affordable homes. The Land Acquisition Fund has been on pause in 2026, although HomeSight hopes to offer it as a loan product again in 2027.
In total, the targeted grants and financing provided by the Field Order 15 Fund have resulted in nearly 800 homes (represented here as housing units) entering the development pipeline through BIPOC developers across Western Washington.
At the 2026 Housing WA Conference, Uche Okezie received the 2026 Friend of Housing Award in the “Unsung Hero” category, in part because of her contributions to the community by managing the Field Order 15 Fund.
For more information about the Field Order 15 Fund, contact Uche Okezie at Uche@homesightwa.org