Community Reinvestment Program (CRP)

The Community Reinvestment Program (CRP) is a community-designed initiative to uplift communities. The goal is to create lasting economic benefits, build wealth and ensure everyone has a fair chance at success.

CRP partners with organizations across the state to support economic development, reentry services, legal assistance and violence prevention. In collaboration with community partners, CRP’s impact includes:

Creating jobs in partnership with diverse small businesses
Offering training programs to meet workforce needs
Higher self-sufficient incomes for people to support their families
Helping people acquire homes and start new businesses
Increasing safety of our neighborhoods through community-led projects

CRP funding opportunities

The Community Reinvestment Program (CRP) received $60 million for 2025–2027—including $50 million in new funds.

Economic development with CRP

CRP’s economic development program is repairing wealth disparities.

Legal assistance with CRP

CRP legal assistance helps people clear legal obstacles so they can move forward with opportunity.

Reentry services with CRP

Reentry services increase the likelihood of successful for people who are transitioning from incarceration back into their communities.

Violence prevention with CRP

CRP is investing in community-based mentorship programs for youth and young adults ages 14–24

Agricultural services with CRP

The Community Reinvestment Program is expanding to support agriculture in historically marginalized communities.

News and updates

March 19, 2026

Workforce Development Boards distribute millions to communities statewide in collaboration with CRP

Across Washington, the Community Reinvestment Program is helping people access better jobs, strengthen small businesses and build economic opportunities in their communities.

February 25, 2026

Homeownership builds stability. Not just for families, but for entire communities.

Across Washington state, the need for housing is urgent — but access to homeownership isn’t equal. For many communities, the barriers aren’t about effort or ambition; they’re structural. That’s why CRP’s Homeownership Capital Accelerator program is working to invest in both the families and housing supply that makes homeownership possible.

February 13, 2026

New CRP funding opportunities for organizations and tribes expanding homeownership

Commerce’s Community Reinvestment Program (CRP) is now accepting applications from organizations, lenders and tribes to assist people with buying homes and building generational wealth.

Resources

In 2022, the WA Legislature created the Community Reinvestment Account and appropriated $200 million to address racial, economic, and social disparities created by the historic design and enforcement of state and federal criminal laws and penalties for drug possession (the war on drugs). The Legislature directed that the Department of Commerce (Commerce) invest the funds into four program areas:

Economic development
Civil and criminal legal assistance
Community-based violence intervention and prevention
Reentry services

Commerce, in partnership with the WA Office of Equity, worked with communities across the state to develop a Community Reinvestment Plan laying out recommendations for how these funds would be invested over the 2023-2025 biennium (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2025).

The Community Reinvestment Plan recommended Commerce distribute the $200 million across the state through more than 17 individual grant programs. Some of the grant programs were expansions of existing programs. Some of the programs represents new ideas, requiring more time and collaboration to implement.

To read the original plan, download the 2023-2025 Community Reinvestment Plan (PDF)

In 2025, the legislature appropriated $50 million of new funding for the CRP. Commerce is not required to follow the original Community Reinvestment Plan, but is directed to distribute funds for the program areas listed in RCW 43.79.567: Community reinvestment account, in similar proportions to the 2023-2025 investment areas. Additionally, the legislature updated the definition of by-and-for organizations. CRP by-and-for organizations include, but are not limited to, those operated by and for Black, Latine, Native American, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.