We have all seen the heartwarming commercials on TV where a veteran non-profit like Wounded Warrior Project or Tunnels to Towers gives a grievously wounded veteran a new house adapted for their permanent injuries. After doing a story for the News-Gazette on one such veteran receiving a house a couple of years ago, I started asking: why do these veterans, who short of those that have died in service, have sacrificed more than all other veterans, do not get more help from the Veterans Affairs (VA)?
It turns out there are two programs within the VA to help veterans with either modifying an existing house for amputees or to purchase a new house with built in modifications. The problem is, the program to purchase houses is severely underfunded, providing less than $122,000 per house in total, and is limited to 120 veterans in each fiscal year.
According to Homes for Heroes, a not-for-profit that specifically builds homes for these severely disabled veterans, there are approximately 1,000 veterans who are eligible under the VA criteria. In addition, in time, other now-relatively young, severely injured veterans will see their mobility issues amplified with the inevitable passage of time. Homes for Heroes, which has built two houses in Central Florida, is only able to build these homes for veterans though very generous, high-dollar donations of land, construction materials and labor, fee waivers from local governments and the equally high dollar donations of all the things that need to make a new house a home like furniture, appliances, and window treatments, just to name a few.
Let me be clear, the injuries these veterans incurred, mainly from being blown up by improvised explosive devices in Iraq or Afghanistan, involve the loss of more than one limb. These are veterans who have lost most or all use of both arms, or a leg amputated to the hip, which precludes the use of any practical prosthetic, leaving them to use a crutch or wheelchair as their only form of mobility.
The true value of an adaptive house goes far beyond the assurance of a disabled veteran family having a permanent place to live. A disabled veteran who received a Homes for Heroes house in Lake County has spoken about how he is now able to lessen the burden of his disability on his family and can contribute to caring for and playing with his children and help prepare the family’s meals.
Given the relatively finite number of these veterans, a surge of adequate funding could get these very deserving veterans into adapted or modified homes over several years. If bureaucratic barriers are broken down, the task could continue to use donations, with VA funding offsetting the larger costs of land and construction.
Due to enhanced body armor and effectiveness of battlefield medical technology, these veterans survived blasts that would have killed soldiers in previous wars. They lived, but at a grievous personal cost, and we should generously give them the opportunity to live the absolute best life they can going forward. Please think of them on this Veterans Day.
Terry Lloyd is a veteran, and reports on, among other local happenings, veteran’s affairs in Osceola County for the News-Gazette.
