HUD launches fair housing investigation into Washington State covenant homeownership program

HUD Secretary Scott Turner notified the Washington State Housing Finance Commission on March 24, 2026, that the agency was investigating whether the state's Covenant Homeownership Program illegally discriminates by restricting mortgage assistance to applicants of specific racial and ethnic groups. The 2023 state program offered zero-interest down payment loans of up to 20% to first-time buyers who could show that they or an ancestor lived in Washington before April 1968, when the Fair Housing Act took effect. Turner said "DEI is dead at HUD" and called the criteria illegal racial preferences.