For Home Opportunities Made Easy Inc. (HOME Inc.), helping people with low incomes rent and buy affordable homes is important. So is making sure they’re well-educated about living in rental housing.

Founded in 1967 as the first private, nonprofit housing organization in Des Moines, HOME Inc. runs a property program to develop or rehabilitate homes and a community housing services program to try to help people find housing either through its own home ownership model or through private rentals. The group provides ed-ucational classes as well as a place to call with general rental questions.

“HOME Inc.’s mission is to create opportunities for affordable housing,” said Executive Director Pam Carmichael. “We also know that rental housing is a major means of supporting lower-income people. There’s not a lot of support out there for that.”

HOME Inc. currently has seven houses in some stage of acquisition, she said, and is providing leasing with an option to buy for six households.

The other major part of HOME Inc.’s service is education for people who aren’t used to renting from a landlord. HOME Inc. launched a RentWise educational program last year, in which participants take a series of classes to learn how to obtain and keep housing.

To help people already in rental housing, HOME Inc. provides support services. New tenants or landlords can call to ask basic questions about how they can legally handle a situation, including eviction. Carmichael estimated about 1,600 new households around the state utilized the service in the past six months.

“It’s part of our responsibility to help the client determine what’s the best option for them,” she said.

HOME Inc. is one of five groups working on an initiative to house homeless families, which started in 2009. The group is working with Anawim Housing to find homes for 21 families, primarily people currently living in homeless shelters.

HOME Inc. is a United Way of Central Iowa member agency, and also receives funding through the Polk County Housing Trust Fund.