{"id":6548,"date":"2025-05-28T08:56:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T12:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/?p=6548"},"modified":"2025-05-28T08:56:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T12:56:30","slug":"racially-restrictive-covenants-island-county-wa-recommends-new-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/racially-restrictive-covenants-island-county-wa-recommends-new-resolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Racially Restrictive Covenants: Island County, WA Recommends New Resolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Leaders in Island County, in Washington State, hope to adopt a resolution for atonement. The resolution will officially apologize to those people and households kept out of the county by race-based deed restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A deed restriction that \u201cruns with the land\u201d stays on the property if the deed changes hands. Once a home was marked as whites-only, it stayed that way. And one group had an edge on everybody else for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, county recording offices across the states have begun purging prejudice from deeds<\/a>. Island County wants to make a clear statement as to the substantial harm that counties enabled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deeds Are for Everyone (But Once They Weren\u2019t)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Language about race in deeds was common in many places across the country in the first half of the 1900s. Whites-only language was written into commercial as well as residential real estate deeds. Developers wrote such language into the covenants, conditions and restrictions (CCRs) of homeowners\u2019 associations as well. Lenders expected it. Deeds were held up like fences to keep neighborhoods from becoming racially diverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Fair Housing Act of 1968 finally came into effect, this activity stopped. But the deeds that already contained the unconstitutional language were still around. It had long been said (including by deed recorders, real estate lawyers, and title agents) that a deed could never be changed. If it offended state anti-discrimination laws, or violated the Fair Housing Act, a deed restriction just wouldn\u2019t be enforced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Times are changing. So are deeds. Officials now confront harmful deed restrictions<\/a> in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Missouri<\/a> and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington\u2019s Racial Covenants Project Makes Headway<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Washington passed a law<\/a> that pays for the examination of \u201cexisting recorded covenants and deed restrictions\u201d to find \u201cracial or other unlawful restrictions on property ownership.\u201d This covers deeds transferred from New Year\u2019s Day 2022 on. The University of Washington and Eastern Washington University have been sifting through deeds, looking for the ones that contain discriminatory bans on ownership or use of real estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they find one of these deeds, the researchers notify the deed holder and the county auditor where the properties exist. The notification comes along with instructions on how to legally renounce the language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of this state-based Racial Restrictive Covenants Project, Island County found 900+ deeds, in 22 different developments, that described homes as off-limits to all minorities. The county leaders noted that keeping minority households out of the county\u2019s most desirable property has had an impact on the Black community for generations. Indeed, race-based deed restrictions<\/a> have shaped where people live to this day. This history means a lack of generational wealth for minority households. It makes homeownership chronically unavailable for some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, today\u2019s county leaders sense the need to say something about what yesterday\u2019s leaders enabled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement they\u2019ve hashed out has bipartisan backing. Commissioner Melanie Bacon, a Democrat, wrote up the text for the county resolution. Commissioner Jill Johnson, who\u2019s a Republican, greenlighted the text for formal consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A third commissioner recognized the initiative as a way to \u201cunderstand the mistakes of the past so we can move on to a more equitable future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equal access to deeds is not only an issue of financial fairness; it\u2019s a matter of health and well-being. For example, research shows a connection between racial deed restrictions and overheating hazards<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the Resolution Says<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Race-based language in deeds can go unnoticed, even when deeds change hands. But when the deed holders finds such language, what recourse do they have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Island County, Washington is striving to set an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draft resolution observes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n