IHI was founded in 1996 by Bernard L. Tetreault, David Rusk, and Richard Dubin. Mr. Tetreault had stepped down from the Executive Director position at Montgomery County\’s Housing Opportunities Commission and intended to share Montgomery County\’s experience in developing affordable housing with the rest of the country. In the early years, IHI operated in a “virtual” state, providing consulting assistance to governments and developers seeking to incorporate mixed income housing into their communities, addressing public housing transformation and HOPE VI redevelopment, and technical assistance to municipalities throughout the county on adoption of new inclusionary housing programs.
IHI has had a great deal of experience with public, private and HUD funded projects. IHI was one of the program managers for the Special Mobility Housing Choice Voucher Program (Thompson) for five years. In this HUD funded program, IHI placed 267 families in homes in areas of opportunity through the Baltimore metropolitan area. Our program focus was on establishing Project Based Voucher placements in areas that were not impacted by high concentrations of minority or impoverished households.
The Broadway Homes Program, part of the Special Mobility Housing Choice Voucher Program, assisted a group within the Thompson Program. Former residents of Broadway Homes in Baltimore City were given assistance in moving into homes developed by Homes for America. IHI provided pre-move and postmove case management services and successfully moved twenty-seven families to areas of opportunity in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel and Harford Counties.
IHI also worked with Enterprise Community Homes on two separate private projects to relocate residents that were over-income when the apartment community was being renovated using federal tax credits. We assisted 12 families in relocating to new rental housing and 6 families with purchasing a home. IHI helped families develop a plan to move, and provided homeownership and financial management counseling.
In 2006, IHI was selected by Housing Authority of Baltimore City to carry out a portion of the remedy that resulted from the Bailey Consent Decree, called the Enhanced Leasing Assistance Program (ELAP) which provides housing assistance to non-elderly persons with disabilities through the Housing Choice Voucher Program (formerly Section 8).
Today, IHI focuses its grassroot and community efforts at the local level in Baltimore City, and surrounding counties, serving the most vulnerable sector of the population by matching them with housing opportunities.