Gabe Galanda published “Promise of tribal homeownership in WA remains unfulfilled” in the April 20, 2025 edition of The Seattle Times. An excerpt:
Twenty years. That’s how long Native American families across Washington paid rent on homes they were promised they would one day own. After 20 years of monthly payments, maintaining their properties and upholding all obligations asked of them, not one deed was transferred. Not one.
The promise of homeownership, extended to hundreds of Native families through the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, remains unfulfilled. The institution responsible for this failure is the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. And now, thanks to a text exchange that is a public record, we know exactly how commission leadership felt about a bipartisan bill that might have fixed it.
“Awful bill.” That is how, in text messages exchanged by commission leaders in January 2026, commission Executive Director Steve Walker described House Bill 2527 — reform legislation designed to hold private investors accountable for fulfilling homeownership promises made to Native families. Consultant Nick Federici was equally dismissive. “It’s idiotic,” he replied to Walker, who also called HB 2527 “lame.”
These were not offhand frustrations vented in isolation. They were part of a coordinated campaign to kill Native homeownership legislation before it could gain traction.
