Des Moines has a new crop of people who've had their hands in real residential repair work, and contractors looking for entry-level help may want to take note. The first group from the Work That Impacts Housing program, a four-month pre-apprenticeship run by the City of Des Moines and the Polk County Housing Trust Fund, graduated Nov. 5 (via City of Des Moines).
The program is built to help adults try out the skilled trades while getting needed repairs done for low- and moderate-income homeowners. The city calls this first round a pilot and says it hopes to build on it with more trades pathways and home repairs.
What participants did
According to the city, participants got hands-on experience in residential construction and electrical work, learned about career paths in the trades, worked alongside city inspectors and watched active construction projects up close.
They also did real work on real houses. Through the city's Improving Our Neighborhoods program, known as ION, they helped complete interior repairs and electrical work for eligible homeowners. That's a twist on how ION normally works. The city's property improvement administrator, Dan Grauerholz, noted in the release that ION usually sticks to exterior repairs only.
How the program is set up
City Council documents from this spring fill in the structure. The program targets adults 18 and older, with an emphasis on people between 25 and 35, and has pre-apprentices doing owner-occupied interior repairs in five Des Moines neighborhoods where they live.
The first phase used the Multi-Craft Core Curriculum, led by Forest Avenue Outreach, along with residential repair work through ION and contractor partners. A second phase brought in Carpenters Local 106 and the Des Moines Electrical Apprenticeship, with commercial on-the-job time at contractors including Tri-City Electric, Baker Electric and Weitz. The city hires the pre-apprentices temporarily and supervises them, and the housing trust fund reimburses all salary and repair costs, so the city reports no cost to its own budget.
Unlike many pre-apprenticeship programs that participants pay for, this one pays them. Radio Iowa reported in May that at least 26 people had applied and that the program was aimed at adults changing careers. "This is an opportunity for adults to make that transition, that leap, that career change," Julian Neely of the Polk County Housing Trust Fund told the station.
The city hasn't said how many people graduated, when a second group will start or how employers can sign on.
The ION connection
ION itself is steady work for contractors. The program offers exterior repairs such as roofs, siding, windows and doors for owner-occupants at or below 80% of Polk County's area median income, with help of up to $40,000 per home through grants, forgivable loans and liens, depending on income. The city's ION page says it's looking for contractors and vendors of all sizes and backgrounds to sign up through its bidding process. The 2026 homeowner application window has closed and reopens Jan. 4, 2027.
Why it matters for Contractors
Finding entry-level people who show up and know which end of a drill to hold is one of the hardest parts of running a small shop. These graduates have core construction training, residential repair time and exposure to union carpentry and electrical work. That makes them worth a call if you need a helper or are thinking about bringing on an apprentice. No formal hiring pipeline has been announced, so reach out to the Polk County Housing Trust Fund or the city's Neighborhood Services department and ask how to connect with graduates or get involved in the next round.
Two other doors are open. If you do exterior work, look at registering as an ION contractor through the city's online bidding portal. And if you're ready to formalize training, Iowa Workforce Development's new LaunchRA incentive pays employers $2,000 per apprentice for new registered apprenticeship programs set up on or after July 1, 2026, paid after the apprentice's first 180 days.