What Are We Willing To Do About It?
In Washington State, only 34 percent of Black households own their homes. For white households, it is 68 percent. That is a 34-point gap in the most powerful wealth-building tool most families will ever have. Over the last decade, Black homeownership here has risen just 4.6 percentage points. At this pace, it will take generations to close the gap.
The question is not whether those numbers are alarming. The question is what we are willing to do about it.
This is not an abstract statistic. It is a lived reality. Families are priced out of neighborhoods they helped build. Parents cannot tap into home equity to send a child to college, start a business, or survive a job loss. Children are uprooted again and again as rents climb. Wealth that should stay rooted in community slips away. If we do not act with urgency, another generation will be locked out of stability, opportunity, and choice.
How We Got Here
Decades of exclusion shaped these outcomes. Redlining and restrictive covenants locked Black households out of appreciating neighborhoods. Lending discrimination and appraisal bias stripped away value and blocked buying power. Today, record home prices, a shortage of entry-level homes, limited down payment assistance, and high rent burdens make the climb even steeper. These outcomes are not inevitable. People built these systems. People can change them.
Why the Black Home Initiative Exists
The Black Home Initiative (BHI) is working to change this. BHI is not an organization. It is a regional network with a big vision. We bring together builders, lenders, housing counselors, public agencies, nonprofits, advocates, employers, faith leaders, and residents across King, Pierce, and Thurston counties. Our shared goal is to create 1,500 new Black homeowners by the end of 2028 and change the conditions that created the gap in the first place. We test bold ideas, scale promising practices, advocate for change, direct resources to what works, and stay laser-focused on measurable results.
The good news is that we are making progress.
Families are closing on homes and building equity. Developers in the network are breaking ground on houses first-time buyers can afford. Lenders are creating new products to reach buyers who have been left out. Policy partners are expanding down payment help and protections that keep people in their homes. Housing counselors are scaling culturally responsive education so buyers are ready for a mortgage and set up to succeed long-term. These wins prove change is possible. They also prove we need to build on this momentum. Check out the latest progress report from BHI.
What It Will Take
Closing the gap will take more than good intentions. It means building a stronger housing ecosystem that includes deeply affordable rentals, first-time buyer homes, multigenerational housing, and permanently affordable options. It means building homes without unnecessary delay, and creating financing tools so nonprofit and mission-driven developers can compete, buy land, and deliver at scale. It means expanding down payment assistance to truly close the gap, ending appraisal bias through transparency and accountability, and ensuring buyers have the education, post-purchase support, repair funds, and tax relief to stay in their homes. And it means making sure Black households can buy in the communities where they already live, work, worship, and lead.
Gives and Gets
I, Lauren E. McGowan, serve as Executive Director of LISC Puget Sound and as part of the BHI core team. From where I sit, two things are true. The BHI framework, partners, and early wins are real. The scale of the challenge is still bigger than the resources and will we have brought to the table.
Every day I ask myself what more I can give to make a bigger impact. Can I open more doors, remove more barriers, take bolder risks? Now I am asking you the same thing. If we all give more, we will get more for our shared priorities, for our organizations, for families, and for future generations. More resources. Better policies. More homes.
What’s in our way? Is it a scarcity mindset? The comfort of doing things the way they’ve always been done? What we’ve done so far isn’t enough. We need to let go of what’s not working and lean into innovation. We need to build on what gets results and have the courage to try something new when it doesn’t. This isn’t just about imagining what’s possible. It’s about deciding to make it happen, together, starting now.
How You Can Plug In Today
Give: Invest in the network to expand down payment assistance, buyer readiness, home repair and stabilization, and the pipeline of affordable for-sale homes. Start here: blackhomeinitiative.org
Become a Partner: If you’re passionate about advancing Black homeownership, building generational wealth, and creating equitable housing opportunities, we invite you to become a BHI partner. Partners gain access to a powerful network, shared resources, and collaborative opportunities to drive meaningful change. Learn more and join us today by visiting the Black Home Initiative website.
Volunteer: Lend your skills. Housing counseling, credit coaching, real estate, construction, legal, project management, and communications expertise all move deals forward and help families cross the finish line.
Advocate: Champion policies that expand down payment assistance, speed approvals for affordable ownership projects, increase funding for community-based developers, support subsidies for permanently affordable home ownership projects and prevent displacement. Join the BHI Policy Network and use your voice with city, county, and state leaders.
Connect: Bring new partners to the table. Introduce lenders, employers, developers, faith communities, and philanthropies that can contribute capital, land, or influence. Every new relationship expands what is possible.
Holding the Line in a Shifting Climate
Political uncertainty and division are real. Across the country, we are watching leaders walk back commitments and soften their language to appease those threatened by racial justice. A few years ago, advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion was central to many agendas. Now, in some rooms, even saying the words feels risky.
We cannot allow that fear to decide our future. This work is not about avoiding controversy. It is about righting past wrongs and building a more just future. It is about dismantling systems that excluded Black families from homeownership and creating new ones that offer opportunity, stability, and choice. It is about making sure the next generation inherits something better than what we have now.
BHI was built for moments like this. A network can move when others pause. A network can keep building when the news cycle wobbles. A network can hold the line on urgency, align resources toward results, and refuse to accept that a 34-point gap is normal. Here’s is what BHI has to say about their commitment to standing in the gap.
We have enough evidence to know this is solvable. We have enough honesty to admit it will not solve itself. If you are already part of BHI, push further. If you are not yet in the room, join us. The door is open. The agenda is clear. The stakes could not be higher.
What are we willing to do about it?