Origin Homes held a Dusty Shoe Tour at Knoxville’s Veterans District on Thursday.

The public came out to the event to join Origin as they toured their brand new homes in the VA District. This is Origin’s second round of homes in the neighborhood, as part of their Rural Housing Initiative, which is dedicated to creating more rural, attainable workforce housing across the state. Three have sold, and two are for sale.

Origin introduced two new alley-loading homes to this phase, including one two story, alongside the original Cline plan after feedback from Knoxville city council and community on adding variety. Origin recently selected Knoxville for a third and fourth round of their Rural Housing Initiative, with five more homes being proposed for later this year into early 2026 and another five the following year, dependent on workforce housing tax credit awards. Origin Director of Operations Matt Daniels said his company has loved the partnership with Knoxville.

“Knoxville has done a great job from the mayor, the council, the city, the county support, local businesses, all of that kind of bundled up has made this a great partnership. It’s exciting for us. The commute is not bad from Des Moines by any means and the people are just great. Everyone that comes in has a smile on their face, they’re excited to see what’s going on and it generates a really good buzz around town so it’s been fun.”

Origin Homes is a West Des Moines based company. Hear more from Daniels on an upcoming Let’s Talk Knoxville.