From Seattle to Seaview, housing affordability is high of thoughts for renters and aspiring owners in each nook of our state.
One of many nation’s simplest financing instruments to deal with the housing disaster is the federal Low-Revenue Housing Tax Credit score, which is managed right here by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission.
As Gabriel Galanda said in his April 20 op-ed “Promise of tribal homeownership in WA remains unfulfilled,” LIHTC is essential to financing rental houses developed by tribal housing authorities. This system can even present a life-changing alternative for tenants of properties that select to transform rental items to homeownership after 15 years. That is so far as we agree with Galanda’s op-ed.
However the reality is that LIHTC properties on tribal land are deliberate, constructed and operated by the tribes themselves, utilizing investor capital. Traders share duty — however solely the tribal house owners can take the steps required to switch rental items to tenant possession.
Galanda’s image of tribal communities exploited by grasping “profiteers,” enabled by uncaring state leaders, just isn’t the truth of LIHTC housing or the precise housing challenges confronted by tribal communities.
Right here’s why we opposed Rep. Gerry Pollet’s invoice (HB 2527) throughout the 2026 session: The invoice had good intentions in searching for to extend LIHTC investor accountability, however by complicated the roles of the developer and investor, it might not have achieved its aim and as a substitute risked doing hurt to tribal house owners.
We at the moment are working constructively with Rep. Pollet towards our shared aim of empowering tribes to implement the housing options that work for his or her communities, together with tenant possession.
Misrepresentations of the LIHTC program are counterproductive to this aim. These are issues of reality, not opinion. LIHTC financing in our state, like others, begins with a aggressive course of wherein builders together with nonprofits, for-profits, housing authorities and tribes submit their deliberate housing tasks. The developer can earn two additional factors (out of greater than 150) by selecting so as to add tenant possession.
If awarded tax credit, the developer — on this case, the tribe — sells them to an investor. The investor pays the tribe thousands and thousands of {dollars} up entrance to construct the housing mission, in alternate for main earnings tax write-offs over time.
For the primary 15 years of the mission, the investor and tribe kind an proudly owning partnership. The investor is the “restricted accomplice” having no position in operations, however is vulnerable to shedding the tax credit if the property is out of compliance with LIHTC guidelines.
The tribal housing authority, because the “basic accomplice,” is the operator and supervisor of the property, liable for compliance together with hire and earnings limits, upkeep and security, tenant relations and a tenant possession plan, if relevant. After the investor exits the partnership at 12 months 15, the tribe can convert items to tenant possession.
We totally acknowledge that we on the Housing Finance Fee failed to make sure tribal house owners had been ready and outfitted to implement tenant possession. This was the topic of an intensive audit by the state auditor’s workplace in 2024.
Even earlier than the audit concluded, we had addressed our shortcomings by means of a brand new set of insurance policies which give steering and maintain the proudly owning partnership accountable for implementing tenant possession and defending the rights of tenants. We will and can take motion towards unhealthy actors who fail to honor these commitments.
In the meantime, tribal housing authorities throughout the state have been working with us for the previous three years on the advanced authorized and procedural steps required to switch items to tenant possession. Once more, these are steps solely they will take.
Final July, the Spokane Tribe was the primary to finish tenant transfers, with 17 tenants changing into owners. The tribe pursued this course although tenant possession was not a part of their LIHTC dedication.
In contrast, we’ve discovered that some tribes who selected tenant possession years in the past at the moment are skeptical that it’s the finest course both for his or her communities or the tenants themselves. They — not the investor — are cautious about continuing.
That’s why the Housing Finance Fee is approaching tenant-ownership compliance with endurance and respect. Nobody is aware of the housing challenges in Washington’s Indian Nation higher than the tribal communities and leaders themselves. We have to hearken to them and help their targets and priorities.
