The Polk County Housing Trust Fund (PCHTF) will recognize individual and collective leadership in securing housing opportunity in Polk County during its upcoming Housing For All Excellence Soirée planned for the Highland Park neighborhood of Des Moines on Thursday, May 28.
The annual event brings together leaders and community housing advocates across the metro to support the Trust Fund’s Community Investment grant making that supports critical nonprofit programs providing housing stability and success programming.
This year, the event features presentation of two awards for leadership in housing:
Individual Leadership Award: Kris Schechinger-Camper, director of corporate citizenship at Nationwide. Kris served on the Trust Fund’s board from 2020 to 2026, including as vice chair. She is a highly respected leader guiding PCHTF’s community investment priorities that fund critical local housing programs.
Collective Impact Award: Bankers Trust. Over the 30+ years of the Trust Fund’s history serving Polk County, leaders from Bankers Trust have dependably served in key roles on the board of directors and committees at PCHTF and numerous other local housing organizations as well. This consistent engagement and leadership have firmly established the bank as a pace-setting champion for the cause of housing opportunity.
“This event is also such a key opportunity to bring together the community in support of housing programs that matter,” said Julian D. Neely, the Trust Fund’s director of advancement and community investment. “Creating housing progress is hard work, and it’s important to gather and celebrate the wins along the way.”
Tickets ($60ea) are on sale for the event at PCHTF.org with additional sponsorship opportunities still available. The Trust Fund thanks numerous supporters of the event including architect level sponsors the Polk County Board of Supervisors, Central Bank, Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, Nationwide, and Newbury Living.
IF YOU GO:
Housing For All Excellence Soirée
The French Way Building (413 Euclid Avenue, Des Moines)
Doors: 4:30 p.m., short presentation at 5 p.m., event concludes 7 p.m.
The Polk County Housing Trust Fund is pleased to announce the Work that Impacts Housing Program (WTIHP), a transformative program that bridges two urgent needs – workforce development and housing preservation.
Applications are now open for the program’s new building trades pre-apprenticeship track that helps adults gain useful career skills. Adults age 18+ who have obtained a high school diploma, GED, or equivalent experience are eligible to join a paid pre-apprenticeship program lasting a total of about 4 months. The program includes two phases providing first-hand experience in both residential and commercial construction settings.
“The Work That Impacts Housing Program is intended to positively transform low-to moderate-income homeowners’ homes to be healthier and safer, while positioning Polk County adults eager for a sustainable career,” said Julian Neely, director of advancement and community investment at the Polk County Housing Trust Fund. “This is a beautiful partnership and collaboration between regional entities generating feasible solutions for housing preservation and workforce development efforts.”
First, in partnership with the City of Des Moines, pre-apprentices will take part in paid educational and on-site training for five weeks. During this time, they will complete the TradesFutures Multi-Craft Core Curriculum (MC3) instructed by Forest Avenue Outreach. They will also gain on-site residential construction experience assisting the City of Des Moines’ Improving Our Neighborhoods (ION) program by assisting with interior single-family home repairs for low- and moderate-income Des Moines homeowners alongside licensed City contractors.
After five weeks in this phase, pre-apprentices will transition to a three month commercial phase on either an electrical or carpentry track, in partnership with the Local 106 Carpentry Union or I.B.E.W. Local 347. During this phase, they will be hired as pre-apprentices and obtain job experience with contractors like Tri-City Electric and Baker Electric.
The Work that Impacts Housing Program will provide a wealth of experience, from earning the MC3 certification to gaining skills and knowledge toward obtaining a national recognized building inspection license or obtaining an in-demand career in the building trades.
“This opportunity benefits everyone involved,” City of Des Moines property improvement administrator Dan Grauerholz said. “Residents receive needed repairs that would typically fall outside the scope of our work, contractors gain additional support with materials, and pre-apprentices get valuable hands-on experience in a field they are working to enter.”
Applications are now open through this opportunity at https://dsm.city/wtihp and are being accepted until May 19 at 4:00 p.m. Six pre-apprentices will be selected for the initial program. Additional program information can also be found at https://pchtf.org/work or by contacting PCHTF’s director of advancement and community investment, Julian Neely, at jneely@pchtf.org.
The Polk County Housing Trust Fund is proud to provide the funding and resources to compensate for pre-apprentices and necessary home repairs for LMI homeowners in our community. Thank you to the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, the Principal Foundation, Nationwide, and Bank of America for making this program possible.
- PCHTF
- May 1
- 2 min read
Updated: May 5
Housing Matters Symposium was held April 30, 2026 at the Iowa Events Center. Thank you to all who attended and to our presenting sponsors AARP Iowa and the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO).
Listen to Housing Matters Symposium as a podcast
Thanks to the generocity of our speakers, you can listen to audio from Housing Matters Symposium as a podcast. We will be uploading each session as an episode soon, so be sure to subscribe on your favorite service so you don't miss anything!
Listen online at pchtf.org/podcast or through Spotify, YouTube, or (coming soon) Apple Podcasts.
Keynote speaker Charles Marohn
Talk of a “housing crisis” pervades North American cities—be it about off-the-charts rents in coastal cities or hyper-vacancy in the Rust Belt. Charles Marohn discussed the deeper dysfunctions beneath these symptoms. He called for building a more antifragile housing ecosystem in which the bar to entry is low and every neighborhood can undergo incremental change over time.
Presented by Charles Marohn, founder of Strong Towns.
View slides from this presentation
Housing Sites of Opportunity
PCHTF teamed up with local planning firm Confluence to investigate underutilized types of land available for redevelopment of housing, then to visualize Missing Middle Housing developments that could be built there. Housing Sites of Opportunity exist across our metro, and this project lifts up strategies and partnerships to help take advantage.
Presented by Abbey Eckberg and Jane Reasoner, Confluence; introduced by Johnny Alcivar, PCHTF. This session is presented in partnership with Capital Crossroads.
Our new report is available now at https://pchtf.org/missingmiddle
View slides from this presentation
Develop the Developer Launchpad
Building small scale projects in established neighborhoods is a challenge, especially for emerging developers. Last December, PCHTF graduated its first cohort of developers through a multifamily housing boot camp. Now, select graduates from that program will embark on a multi-month development fellowship with DEV Partners. We shared what’s next for the fellows and future opportunities to participate in this program.
Meet the fellows in our recent blog post or learn more about Develop the Developer Launchpad at https://pchtf.org/dtdl
This session was presented by Julian D. Neely, PCHTF and Danny Heggen, DEV Partners.
View slides from this presentation
Incremental Development Showcase
We introduced developers working on innovative infill projects that are bringing new housing options to local neighborhoods. Their presentations highlighted the benefits of neighborhood-scale incremental development and the challenges that come along the way.
Moderated by Toby O’Berry, PCHTF, with Mike Stuart, Tiny Homes of Iowa; Carrie Woerdeman, Central Iowa Community Land Trust/HOME, Inc.; Scott Cutler, Cutler Development; Dan Drendel, Slingshot Architecture.
View slides from this presentation
View video related to this presentation
HOME Inc. shared a new video highlighting the first homes made available through the Central Iowa Community land Trust.