Mission, Vision, Values
We believe that everyone deserves a place to call home and work to make that vision into a reality.
Our Mission
To empower our neighbors by helping them overcome the barriers to obtaining and maintaining safe, stable, affordable housing. We do this through education, housing counseling, neighborhood revitalization, and affordable housing development.
Our Vision
Every person has a place to call home.
Our Values
Neighbors
We are local. Our history has grassroots, and we've had our boots on the ground in Des Moines since 1967.
In 1967, less than a dozen citizens were frustrated by the endless discussions and inaction addressing the lack of affordable housing in Des Moines. They decided to do something about it. They believed only through sustained, vigorous, and disciplined action on the local level could change be made to combat the absence of low-cost public housing. From this, Des Moines’ very first housing nonprofit, HOME, Inc. was born.
We are proud of our history of rising to the occasion and being nimble and flexible enough to be able to change with the times. We are able to shift our programming to deal with the issues people are facing now. We continue to do the work to create affordable housing in Des Moines and Central Iowa.
Barriers
In Central Iowa alone, 41% of renters are cost burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing*. There is a shortage of 58,377 available, affordable rental homes for low-income households. For a person making minimum wage to afford a two-bedroom rental unit they would have to work 104 hours per week**. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.
* Source: US Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates, 2018-2022
** Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2024
