In 2000, RIHA was considered financially "Troubled" by HUD. Today, RIHA is considered a leading-edge agency. It has developed and implemented a variety of programs and initiatives that has allowed it to become more entrepreneurial and self-sustaining while more effectively serving its customers and the community. RIHA is one of very few PHAs nationwide to have a comprehensive Asset Management Plan in place. In addition, it has successfully implemented and completed more than a fifty percent of the high-profile initiatives within the plan - including the demolition of Valley Homes - a 57 unit obsolete public housing development and the successful relocation all 53 families that lived there a full five months ahead of schedule.

NAHRO Awards
The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) Merit Award Program was created to give national recognition to those housing authorities that are finding innovative ways of making a positive difference within their communities and in the lives of the people who live there.

2010
RIHA received Merit Awards for:
Resident Client Services

	Concentra Biometric Screening & Healthcare Assessment
	Goodwill Industries: Career Planning & Job Skills Assessment & Training Program

Elderly Social Services Program

	Concentra Biometric Screening & Healthcare Assessment
	Monthly Shopping Trips
	Quad Cities River Bandits Baseball Game & Picnic
	Trinity Foot Care Clinic

2009
RIHA received Merit Awards for:

	Cultural Diversity Training
	Garden Growers
	Healing Waters Empowerment Project
	Student Tutoring And Mentoring Program (STAMP)
	United States Tennis Association

2008
RIHA received Merit Awards for:

	Best Practices Applied to Strategic Improvement
	Best Practices Applied to a Project-Based Management System
	Bicycle Safety Rodeo and Children's Bike Give-A-Way
	JumpStart After School Program
	Gang Resistance Education And Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program.

2007
RIHA received Merit Awards for:

	Development and delivery of Project-Based Maintenance Training for Project Managers, Maintenance staff and Public Housing Authority decision makers
	Development and implementation of a comprehensive Self-Sufficiency Program
	Development and implementation of a Neighborhood Networks Program
	Development and delivery of the Elderly Social Services Program (L.I.T.E.S.)
	An innovative Community Policing Program
	Valley Homes Resident Survey & Relocation Plan

2006
RIHA received Merit Awards for:

	Monthly newsletter
	Construction of multiple affordable homes within the City of Rock Island
	Redevelopment of the Voss Brothers Warehouse which currently houses the RIHA Administrative Offices and 35 mixed-income loft apartments

2005
RIHA received an "Award of Merit in Housing and Community Development" from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) for the development of its Asset Management Plan.