Homes For Our Troops
OtherMay 15, 2014
Each month in this section the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a different charity that benefits military veterans and their families. We are honored to cover the technology that protects those who protect us every day and to back that up, our parent company – OpenSystems Media – will make a donation to each charity we showcase on this page.
In the April/May issue we featured Homes For Our Troops, whose mission is “to build specially adapted homes for severely injured veterans across the nation to enable them to rebuild their lives.” It is a privately funded national non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization committed to helping combat veterans from all branches of the service who returned home with serious injuries since September 11, 2001. They help these warriors and their families by raising awareness, increasing community involvement, raising money, providing building materials and professional labor, and by coordinating the process to build a specially adapted home, according to the Homes For Our Troops website. These homes are provided at no cost to the veterans the charity serves, which removes the burden of a mortgage, so they can focus on their recovery, their family, and ultimately rebuilding their lives.
As of March 31, 2014, the organization has completed 164 homes for severely injured veterans, with 38 more home projects in progress, and all with only 9.2 percent of revenue spent on overhead since the inception of the charity. Most of the projects Homes For Our Troops takes on are the building of new homes. However, “in rare cases, especially in areas with very high land costs, it is more cost effective to buy an existing home and renovate it with all the special modifications needed as dictated by the particular disabilities and injuries of the veteran,” according to the charity’s website.
Homes For Our Troops estimates that with more than 50,000 injured service members to date, the need for their services will only increase in the future. For information on how to help, e-mail Homes For Our Troops at info@hfotusa.org, call 508-823-3300, visit their office at 6 Main Street, Taunton, MA, or check out their website at www.hfotusa.org. For fundraising information visit www.hfotusa.org/host-a-fundraiser.
