The Home Depot Foundation has enlisted the help of several national nonprofit partners that are focused on veterans’ housing needs.
Fisher House Foundation
The Home Depot Foundation is proud to support The Fisher House Foundation, which provides "comfort homes" on the grounds of major military and Veterans Administration medical centers. These homes enable family members to be close to a loved one at the most stressful time - during the hospitalization for an unexpected illness, disease, or injury.
There is at least one Fisher House at every major military medical center to assist families in need and to ensure that they are provided with the comforts of home in a supportive environment. In 2010, the Fisher House program served about 12,000 families, who had an average stay of 45 to 60 days when their loved one had suffered a combat injury. No family pays to stay at any Fisher House, and in 2010 the program saved families more than $16 million in lodging costs plus food and transportation expenses.
Because the first Fisher Houses were opened 20 years ago and the demand for their rooms is high, there are often repairs, upgrades and modifications that need to made to them, just like any other house. Recognizing that the need to ensure that the older homes areas comfortable for the families today as they were on the day they opened, the Foundation has focused its contribution on making needed changes at the existing homes. Projects that are currently planned include replacing an older patio to make it wheelchair accessible, updating bathrooms and installing new appliances.
Habitat for Humanity International
Habitat for Humanity International’s Repair Corps program provides Habitat affiliates across the country with the resources to repair the homes of nearly 100 veterans and their families.
Repair Corps grants will pay for needed home repairs from insulation and weather stripping to the installation of wheelchair ramps and renovated bathrooms and doorways to accommodate disabled veterans. Larger repairs such as roofing, electrical, plumbing, HVAC and structural improvements will also be available. The program is designed under the same model as new homes built for Habitat families where the veteran will repay the zero interest loan necessary for these repairs, which is then deposited into a revolving fund to assist additional families in need of decent housing.
Military Warriors Support Foundation
Through its Homes4WoundedHeroes program, Military Warriors Support Foundation awards mortgage-free homes to service members who are disabled and have severe or unique circumstances due to the injuries they received during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thanks to home donations from Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America, MWSF has been able to provide 61 veterans and their families with homes, and it has the goal of donating 1,000 homes over the next five years. The Home Depot provides repairs and renovations to these homes to prepare them for the families.
The Home Depot Foundation is also providing funding to support MWSF’s efforts to not only get disabled veterans and their families into homes, but to keep them there. The Foundation’s funding will support three years of family and financial mentoring as well as a $1,000 gift card to The Home Depot for any incidentals they may need.
Operation Homefront
Established in 2002, Operation Homefront provides emergency financial and other assistance to the families of service members and wounded warriors. The Home Depot Foundation is proud to support Operation Homefront to help repair, rehabilitate and retrofit homes of wounded warriors in locations around the country. The funding also helps provide transitional family housing for wounded warriors leaving the military due to their injuries through the Operation Homefront Village programs near major military hospitals in Washington, D.C., San Antonio, Texas, and San Diego, Calif. In addition to funding, Team Depot, The Home Depot’s associate-led volunteer force, provides its time and talents to many of the projects.
Semper Fi Fund
The Semper Fi Fund provides immediate financial support for post 9-11 injured and critically ill Marines and their families, as well as members of the Army, Air Force or Coast Guard who serve in support of Marine forces. The assistance provided by Semper Fi Fund ranges from providing specialized and adaptive equipment to adaptive transportation and housing.
The Home Depot Foundation’s grant support will be used to used to support Semper Fi Fund’s Housing Assistance Program to provide repairs and modifications to the homes of wounded and critically ill service members.
U.S.VETS
U.S.VETS is the nation’s largest non-profit provider of services to veterans facing challenges in their transition to civilian life. It has 11 locations nationwide and provides counseling, job training, job placement and housing services to almost 5,000 veterans nationwide each year.
The Home Depot Foundation is partnering with U.S.VETS to rehab and repair 21 apartments in seven buildings that provide graduated transitional to permanent housing opportunities for veterans and their families in St. Louis and to rehab a new building that will provide 85 beds of transitional housing and 51 permanent supported housing for veterans and their families in Washington, D.C.
Volunteers of America
Founded in 1896, Volunteers of America is one of the largest nonprofit providers of affordable housing in the U.S. with a focus specifically on veterans, low-income families with children, the disabled and senior citizens. Volunteers of America has a long history of supporting veterans that began during World War II. Today, the organization provides assistance to veterans in 46 cities in 20 states with programs that range from helping veterans access their federal benefits…to providing job training and assistance in finding employment…to providing housing and health care. In 2010, these programs helped 7,700 homeless veterans.
The Home Depot Foundation is proud to be supporting Volunteers of America to help them renovate, repair and modify the homes they provide to veterans and their families. Together we will be working on a wide range of housing options, from garden style apartments in Los Angeles for veterans and their families, to transitional housing for homeless veterans in Detroit, to apartments for veterans with special needs in Miami. In addition to a home, these veterans will also benefit from the training and counseling provided by Volunteers of America.
