Community Reinvestment Project: Asset Building – Black Home Initiative

In June 2024, in partnership with Black Home Initiative, Greater Tacoma Community Foundation (GTCF) contracted with the Washington State Department of Commerce to support delivery of $500,000 in Community Reinvestment Project funds to Pierce and King County Communities specifically for Asset Building.

The Department of Commerce’s Community Reinvestment Project (CRP) is a community-designed plan to uplift Black, Latine, and Indigenous communities disproportionately harmed by the historical design/enforcement of criminal laws and penalties for drug possession (otherwise known as the war on drugs).

Powered by Civic Commons, Black Home Initiative (BHI) is a network of nonprofits, private companies, philanthropy, governments, and associations making up an ecosystem focused on increasing Black homeownership. BHI leadership directs the Black Homeownership Legacy Fund (BHLF), a capacity building fund held at GTCF. The BHLF is specifically designed to support nonprofit organizations and emerging efforts that are working to increase affordable homeownership for Black households in the region.

CRP ASSET BUILDING FUNDING PROCESS

The Asset Building funding process and decision making was led by Black Home Initiative to promote practices and advance policies that would increase Black homeownership in the region. Based on existing ecosystem knowledge and BHI network engagement, BHI leadership guided $500,000 in funding to By/For Black, Latine, and Indigenous organizations leading asset building efforts in Pierce and King Counties. GTCF used low-barrier, trust-based processes to ensure efficient delivery of funding to the organizations recommended by BHI. GTCF front-funded those organizations and then received reimbursement from Department of Commerce. This meant the recipients didn’t need to secure their own funding before being reimbursed, which is the traditional government funding processes.

Michael Brown, Civic Architect, Civic Commons

“This funding helped to support the work of nonprofit organizations working to create homeownership pathways for Black residents of the region. The organizations were able to leverage more flexible support thru the Black Homeownership Legacy Fund and be better positioned to deliver on BHI’s shared priority.”

“Partnering with GTCF was a godsend. The process of working with them was so simple and easy and hence, mitigated any concerns we thought we would have with government funding.”

CRP ASSET BUILDING FUNDING DISTRIBUTION