Who We Are


Community Housing Initiatives is a nonprofit organization that brings people and resources together to develop and preserve caring, quality communities where everyone belongs.  Our wide-ranging experience helps us create a lasting impact in ways that are as unique as the places we serve. We provide housing and support to communities that Iowans are proud to call home.

Vision

Community Housing Initiatives partners with Iowa Communities to create and preserve quality, affordable housing to stabilize and improve lives and neighborhoods. 

Mission

CHI is a collaborative organization impacting lives of Iowa residents developing safe and quality community housing.

Guiding principles

Community Housing Initiatives:

  • acknowledges the importance of access to affordable, stable, safe, and high-quality housing, neighborhoods, and communities in Iowa
  • catalyzes enduring family, neighborhood and community development
  • cultivates empowerment out of its deep belief in resident potential
  • holds mutual respect among all stakeholders
  • commits to the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and professionalism
  • welcomes true collaboration and the transformative benefits to each partner
  • champions volunteerism for its powerful contribution to neighborhoods and communities
  • embraces the historic and residential character of neighborhoods and communities
  • performs its work in environmentally responsible ways
  • is innovative, adaptive, and accountable

About us

We were founded in Graettinger, Iowa, in 1994 as the housing initiative of Upper Des Moines Opportunity, Inc., a Community Action Program (CAP) that was serving low income Iowans in many ways but recognized a need for adding housing options in many communities.

Since then, we have overseen more than $270 million in real estate development, and we now serve more than 30 Iowa communities. We manage the vast majority of apartment properties we have developed. We also use our expertise in community development to help make Iowa communities the best possible places to live.  Everything we do is driven by a community need.

The work of Community Housing Initiatives is dedicated to the memory of two of our departed team members, Larry Rohret and Connie Herke.