Earlier this month, we had the privilege of gathering at El Centro de la Raza to honor and celebrate nine incredible students on their completion of the Housing Development Internship Program (HDIP)!
If you aren’t already familiar with HDIP, this nine-month, part time, paid internship aims to provide a launch pad for college and graduate students from communities of color seeking a career in affordable housing development. Through this program, these future leaders learn, hands-on, what it takes to create affordable and healthy living communities, develop their leadership skills, and build powerful networks with their cohort and the broader affordable housing community.
The nine graduates of this most recent 2025-2026 cohort were placed across eight organizations, contributing directly on projects relevant to the work of their host agency, while receiving direct mentorship and support from the incredible staff working alongside them. Of this cohort, two graduates are directly continuing on with their host agencies, and four more already have internships elsewhere within the affordable housing sector.
“I also wanted to thank you again for hosting the graduation for our cohort! It was a fun event, and I enjoyed learning more about what everyone’s learned and accomplished during their internship. I also wanted to let you know that [we] attended the Snohomish HDC conference last Friday in Lynnwood and learned a lot about affordable housing challenges like brownfields and the industry’s shift to modular construction! It was really insightful to learn about and meet some new people at the conference.”
– Cohort graduate
We couldn’t be prouder of these graduates and all they’ve accomplished.
Is your organization interested in hosting an intern?
HDIP is now accepting student and host agency applications for the 2025-2026 program year. You can find more information and application materials by visiting our Housing Development Internship Program page.
This HDIP cohort was only made possible by many committed members of our community. We want to express our gratitude to the host agencies—SMR Architects, Side x Side Architects, Northaven Senior Living, Bellwether Housing, Compass Construction, Walsh Construction, Weber Thompson, the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, and Stations Unidos—for their commitment to fostering a new generation of diverse leaders in the affordable housing sector, and to El Centro de la Raza for graciously hosting the graduation.
We also want to thank the speakers and community members who showed up to celebrate the graduates with us on May 29 and, in particular, give a very special thank you to Nesley Bravo, of Nesley Bravo Consulting, for her two years of consulting support to this program. Lastly, but certainly not least, thank you to our sponsors for supporting the program and making HDIP possible!
Program Sponsors
