Mission Statement: To improve the vitality of Iowa’s rural communities by providing financial and other development services.
Homeward, Inc. was established in 1997 by four rural electric cooperatives (RECs) in Iowa. Today seven RECs are members, including Butler County REC, Franklin REC, Humboldt County REC, Grundy County REC, Heartland Power Cooperative, Prairie Energy Cooperative and Raccoon Valley Electric Cooperative.
Bob Bauman, CEO and general manager of Butler County REC in Allison, is the president of Homeward. Deb Prehm serves as Homeward’s program manager.
Our purpose is to assist rural Iowa families with their housing needs and to help small communities and employers in rural Iowa.
We accomplish this through our programs, which focus on making homes more affordable and easier to maintain.
At Homeward we are proud of our accomplishments, which show how committed we are to improving the lives of those we serve. We have:
- Assisted over 700 rural families in north central Iowa since 1997, with this figure increasing monthly
- Assisted with 255 down-payment loans, 242 rehab loans, 73 construction loans and 143 energy-efficiency loans since 1997
- Awarded over two-thirds of our loans to families living outside of city limits
- Totaled over $2,134,068 in new rehab and down payment loans since 1997
- Totaled $3,082,965 in loans since 1997
- Received certification by the U.S. Treasury Certified Development Finance Institution program in 2001
- Established, with sources, a revolving loan fund totaling over $3 million
Our funding and support has come from the following sources:
- 1997 State of Iowa LHAP grant for $150,000
- 1998 HUD HIRE grant for $500,000
- 2001 State of Iowa LHAP grant for $200,000
- 2001 HUD RHED grant for $600,000
- 2001 CDFI grant for $350,000
- 2001 CDFI zero-interest loan for $240,000
- 2002 EDI grant for $500,000
- 2003 RHED grant for $400,000
- 2003 IFA grant for $150,000
- 2004 CDFI grant for $100,000
- 2005 NIPCO loan for $35,000
- 2005 IHOEP grant for $5,000
- 2005 EDI grant for $198,400
- 2005 FHLB grant for $159,500
- 2006 Housing Trust Fund grant for $132,044
- Zero-interest loans from the members of Homeward for $240,000
- Line of credit secured by Homeward for $200,000
- Line of credit guaranteed by the members of Homeward for $480,000
HOMEWARD, INC. DOES NOT DISCRIMINIATE ON THE BASIS OF RACE, COLOR, NATIONAL ORIGIN, RELIGION, AGE, SEX, DISABILITY, FAMILIAL STATUS OR SEXUAL ORIENTATION. WE DO BUSINESS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FEDERAL FAIR HOUSING LAW.