Black Home Initiative in the news following release of statewide report
Black Home Initiative is in the news this week, following the release of a report from the statewide Homeownership Disparities Work Group.
The report, which found BIPOC families and individuals would need to buy more than 140,000 houses in the state to achieve parity with white homeownership on a percentage basis, culminated nine months of work by the Homeownership Disparities Work Group. Several members of the BHI Core Team and Full Team participated in this work group.
The report includes a list of 12 immediate action steps, along with policy revisions and funding priorities across all levels of government.
“The Homeownership Disparities report makes clear the sense of urgency with which we must act. It’s up to each of us; community, housing providers, and government to make good on the recommendations detailed in the report,” said Darryl Smith, executive director at HomeSight and a BHI Core Team member who also served on the state work group.
Several media outlets covered the release of the report and the role of BHI in convening a network to address the challenges presented by the state work group:
What to do about low homeownership in Washington state (KUOW Public Radio)
Report discovers troubling gap between BIPOC, white homeowners… (KIRO Newsradio)
WA seeks funding, solutions as racial homeownership gap persists (The Seattle Times)
Study finds wide gap between number of BIPOC and white homeowners… (KING 5)
A PDF of the full report is available here. For more about BHI, check out our landing page and list of FAQs.