Fair housing and civil rights

The Polk County Housing Trust Fund believes housing opportunity should be open to everyone in the community. This has not always been the case. The Trust Fund is committed to overcoming the consequences of historic housing discrimination and preventing discriminatory practices now and in the future.

Upholding civil rights law

Each April, the Trust Fund honors Fair Housing Month by supporting local proclamations honoring civil rights protections in housing like the federal Fair Housing Act and Iowa Civil Rights Act.

People who feel they have experienced discrimination may seek support from the City of Des Moines Community Impact and Relations Department (in Des Moines) or the Iowa Civil Rights Commission (elsewhere in Polk County).

Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice

The Trust Fund has served as a steering committee member in the region's effort to create and update an Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice as required by federal fair housing law.

The report provides a wealth of data and sets local goals to advance fair housing.

Honoring the historic Center Street neighborhood

Center Street was a lively hub of Black cultural life and economic prosperity until its demolition during the Urban Renewal period of the late 1960s. In 2023, the Polk County Housing Trust Fund led an effort to place a State of Iowa historical marker on the site of this former neighborhood.

Learn more Center Street history

The definitive story of Center Street is told in pictures in Gaynelle Narcisse's book They took our piece of the pie! Center Street revisited, which is available in special collections at the Des Moines Central Library.

Little Village magazine published a high quality historical overview of Center Street in its first Des Moines issue.

Housing discrimination and its legacy in Des Moines

In 2019, the Trust Fund hosted an exhibition focused on the legacy of housing discrimination and redlining in Greater Des Moines. This project included Home Owners Loan Corporation maps that reflect segregation and discriminatory practices stretching back to the New Deal era.

The University of Richmond maintains a project that makes Home Owners Loan Corporation maps available for Des Moines and many cities across the country.

These maps reflect the widespread housing discrimination of the era in which they were drawn, and have come to symbolize the broader trend of racial discrimination in housing lending known as redlining.

Additional resources

National Register of Historic Places documents for the Chautauqua Park neighborhood in Des Moines reveal how this is an example of one area that had race restrictive covenants included when homes were built. (See section 8, page 4).

Find additional details about the history of Urban Renewal in Des Moines in the Sherman Hill neighborhood plan.

In 2023, the Trust Fund detailed local data about our region's persistent racial homeownership gap in a report called Iowa Homeownership through History.

The One Economy project continues to build momentum for overcoming economic and racial inequality in Polk County.