(The Center Square) – The whistleblower who has exposed millions of dollars in potential self-dealing in race-based taxpayer subsidized grant programs in western Washington, was given just 30 seconds to testify in a Wednesday legislative hearing, on each of two bills born out of what she has revealed.
As reported by The Center Square, Corey Orvold, who volunteered with the Tacoma Urban League for more than eight years, stepped down from her position in early 2025 after raising questions about board members allegedly providing grants to their own circle of family and friends.
The Community Reinvestment Program itself aims to support homeownership for minorities by providing grants and taxpayer funding to programs that assist low-income households or providing large grants for developers in the minority community.
The alleged self-dealing, which is being investigated by the office of Attorney General Nick Brown, inspired several bills in Olympia this year, including the two heard in the Senate Housing Committee on Wednesday.
State Senate Republican Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, sponsored Senate Bill 6205, aimed at increasing oversight and accountability in the state housing-assistance program.
“It’s really meant to address what we saw over the summer with some credible reporting which could be characterized as misuse of some of these funds or at least maybe double dealing where folks who had some sort of relationship to the non-profit that was allocating the funding, perhaps a family member….were getting special treatment and getting multiple grants for the same purchase of a house, while others who were also well qualified were told there were no funds available to them,” said Braun.
Orvold, the whistleblower, whose life and business have been threatened since going public to expose the alleged NGO fraud was given just seconds to testify before the committee, as time expired on the hearing since the bill was pushed to the end of allotted time.
“I have had to console devastated community members who believe they had a real opportunity to homeownership through the Community Reinvestment Program,” said Orvold, who brought a large binder of documentation up to the testimony table to show what has uncovered, urging committee members to look at the evidence.
“Many were misled and some lost their dream of owning a home. Others took on new debt and others became homeless. It is clear these funds were disproportionately directed to clients of preferred professionals, nonprofit employees and their family members, close friends and even their own board members,” Orvold said as time expired for her testimony.
Republican Senator Keith Goehner is backing another approach to questions about NGO funding. SB 6167 seeks to prevent multiple different grants or funding streams going to the same developer or individual.
Orvold was also given just 30-seconds to testify on the bill, which she voiced support for.
Based on Wednesday’s testimony on both bills, neither of which received committee votes, Braun’s bill to create more accountability for NGO’s could move forward, while Goehner’s bill to disallow double dipping did not have as much support from testifiers or those who signed in on the legislation.
Goehner did tell Orvold he would look into all of the evidence she has uncovered.
