Regional council moves ahead with support of Black homeownership program despite questions
Forty-two percent of Black-owned homes in Washington have zero net worth. That means their owners face more financial hardships and a more difficult time holding onto the property.
In Thurston County, the homeownership rate for white, non-Hispanic households is 69%, while the homeownership rate for Black households is 45%.
The Black Home Initiative looks to better those numbers and bring more homeownership opportunities to Black families, and the program is expanding into Thurston County.
The Black Home Initiative is a regional effort started by the Seattle nonprofit Civic Commons to help 1,500 new low- and moderate-income Black households become stable homeowners within the next five years. It already has partnerships with the cities of Seattle, Tacoma, Burien, and Tukwila, as well as Pierce County.
The Tumwater City Council received a briefing on the program Aug. 27 and offered unanimous support for the program’s expansion into the county. The following day, the Thurston County Regional Housing Council met with representatives from each city and the county to gauge their interest, and not everyone was on the same page.
Olympia housing program specialist Christa Lenssen said the Olympia City Council received a briefing on the program in July and has already signed the pledge to partner with BHI. She said the Affordable Housing advisory board also supports the program’s expansion into the county.
But the cities of Lacey and Yelm, and the Thurston County Board of Commissioners weren’t ready to fully agree to a partnership.
Lacey council member Carolyn Cox said she presented the partnership plan to the Lacey City Council, and they expressed interest in joining. But the city manager recommended they have their Commission on Equity and other staff take a look at the plan and bring it back for a council study session before making a final decision.
“So that’s a long way of saying we’re interested, but we’ve got some thinking to do,” Cox said.
County Commissioner Carolina Mejia said the county hasn’t had a chance to discuss the proposal. She said it will be added to a future work session before the commission makes a final decision.
Gary Cooper with the City of Yelm said the proposal hasn’t been presented to their council. He said they don’t have a housing program in Yelm, and though he could see them being in support of the initiative, it would only be moral support.
“I can’t imagine Yelm would be opposed to doing that, but staffing resources would be pretty limited,” he said.
Cox said if the Regional Housing Council were to go ahead and sign the partner pledge, it doesn’t preclude the other jurisdictions from signing on at a later time.
Olympia council member Dani Madrone recommended the RHC go ahead and sign the partner pledge because there are things they can do as an inter-jurisdictional body.
She said the RHC has talked about developing a policy platform together and the Affordable Housing advisory board has asked that the RHC support the initiative’s expansion into Thurston County.
“I think it’s great that the other jurisdictions are considering it, but I think that we can also consider it separate from those decisions and say that, yeah, we think that this is really, really important for our region, and we’d like to figure out the role that our body can play in this,” Madrone said.
Tumwater council member Michael Althauser said he thinks it would be meaningful for Tumwater to join the coalition and work together as a region and to not go at the partnership alone.
“I think the goals are ambitious and incredibly worthwhile,” he said. “I think it’s an exciting initiative, and I would be proud for us to support it.”
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