We’re excited to share our Equity, Racial Justice, and Culture Lunch & Learn series for 2026! Each session offers tips and tools to shift organizational policies and procedures, aim to support people and organizations at all levels of their equity journey, and help align our collective toward understanding and operationalizing racial equity to benefit the people within our larger housing justice movement – from work culture to state policy.
"Expanding Access to Homeownership in Washington: History, Solutions, and Resources”
Join leaders from across Washington to explore the historical barriers that have shaped inequities in homeownership, and the innovative solutions working to address them today. This session will highlight tools like community land trusts and the Covenant Homeownership Program, along with practical resources available to support current and future homeowners across the state.
Speakers:
Elizabeth Perez, Washington Homeownership Resource Center, Executive Director
Lisa Byers, OPAL Community Land Trust, Executive Director
Clifford Cawthon, Washington State Department of Commerce, Homeownership Policy Manager
"Housing Justice is Racial Justice: Connecting our 2026 Legislative Priorities and Racial Equity Impact” offered by Ma.Caroline Lopez, MSW
2025 has been a year of political attacks on the most vulnerable populations in our nation. Without a doubt, it has hit hardest for people at the intersections of race, gender, disability, low-no income, and more. As we approach the 2026 Legislative Session, we are offering this Actionshop as a beginner to mid-level racial equity policy analysis, to gain a clear understanding of how the bills and budget requests we are fighting for are connected to the ongoing fight for racial justice. As written in the 1977 Combahee River Collective Statement, "If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression." - (The Combahee River Collective was a Black feminist, lesbian, socialist organization active in Boston, Massachusetts, active from 1974 to 1980.)
Series Archive
Watch this space and sign up for the Housing Alliance email list to be notified of upcoming Lunch & Learn actionshops!
Ma.Caroline Lopez, MSW, Director of Equity, Racial Justice, and Culture
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