Nelson Leenhouts, has spent 52 years in the real estate business. In 1967, Nelson, along with his twin brother, Norman, founded Home Leasing Corporation. For over 25 years, they grew Home Leasing Corporation into a substantial real estate business with a diversified portfolio of single-family homes, apartments, and commercial properties. In 1994, they put their apartment portfolio into Home Properties, which became a successful publicly traded company which grew to over 50,000 rental apartments in twelve states, including 10,000 affordable apartments.

From 1994 until 2003, Nelson and Norman served as chief executives of Home Properties. After stepping away from Home Properties, Nelson and Norman each turned their attentions to their respective privately owned family companies. Nelson’s family retained the name, “Home Leasing” and focused their business on the affordable housing industry. As a result, Home Leasing LLC was formed in 2003 to develop and manage quality, affordable housing. Home Leasing Construction LLC was established in 2008 to coordinate and manage all construction services for Home Leasing projects as well as for third party partners. Both companies are guided by the mission to "improve the lives of our residents and the communities in which we work."

To solidify their long-term commitment to their mission, Home Leasing and Home Leasing Construction each went through a rigorous assessment process in 2017 to become Certified Benefit Corporations (B Corps) and have maintained that certification since. B Corps are for-profit companies that meet high standards of verified social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.