Home Depot Foundation is helping Habitat for Humanity San Fernando/Santa Clarita Valleys (SF/SCV) provide safe and decent housing and a chance for self-sufficiency for our veterans.
As part of The Home Depot Foundation’s commitment to do more for our veterans, they are committing $80 million nationwide to help veterans overcome struggles with housing, unemployment, and disabilities. In addition to funding they are also sending out their associates to commit their time in making a difference in these areas.
Habitat for Humanity San Fernando/Santa Clarita Valleys (HFH SF/SCV) is proud to have Home Depot on board as one of their major contributors to their new Habitat Enriched Neighborhood™ model for veterans. In partnership with CalVet, two new communities of 99 homes are being constructed in Santa Clarita and Sylmar California. , Partnering with HFH SF/SCV allows the Home Depot Foundation to serve all three focus areas at once—housing, unemployment, and disabilities, as we believe that housing programs cannot be successful unless additional training and self-sufficiency programs are in place.
The need for this program specifically targeted at serving veterans’ has never been greater. The Department of Defense reports that since the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, about 2.5 million members of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard and related Reserve and National Guard units have been deployed in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Veterans returning from service today have experienced physical losses of hearing, brain trauma and other conditions due to the prevalence of explosives and the lack of a designated war-zone. Coupled with Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) and other “invisible wounds” of war, special needs are high.
These “invisible wounds” can even lead to greater struggles in terms of reintegration and employment, in fact, according to the New York Times, 30 percent of young combat veterans today are unemployed — equating to 850,000 veterans in our nation who are currently unemployed.
“Any combination of these conditions or circumstances has greatly affected the housing struggles our veterans our facing today. They are frequently forced to live in substandard conditions, overcrowded housing or to couch-surf—staying with family member after family member until they wear out their welcome,” according to Donna Deutchman, CEO HFH SF/SCV.
The Habitat Enriched Neighborhood® model for veterans encompasses single-family homes in a neighborhood setting for low-income veteran families, and is made available to them with payments at no more than 35% of their monthly income. Additionally, self-sufficiency training and resources are provided from local partner agencies free of charge to the families. HFH SF/SCV believes that in order for veterans to be successful in their homes they must first be safe and second, educated and trained in order to gain the knowledge of the middle class.
Habitat SF/SCV does this in a few ways. First for safety of disabled veterans and family members, all homes will be ADA accessible with 11 homes in the Santa Clarita community being single-story, fully ADA compliant. They will give all veterans options for shower modifications, such as grab bars, and pull-down seats, etc., for veterans suffering from dizzy spells, injury, or PTS. In addition, all families will receive safety in the home workshops, disaster preparedness training, and health and dental screenings from partner agencies. Second, Habitat for Humanity SF/SCV will ensure that all veterans and family members will gain the knowledge needed to be successful and move into the middle class. This will come in the form of financial literacy training, resume and dress for success workshops, tutoring for children and more.
“For more than seven years, we have built Habitat Enriched Neighborhoods® and have documented successes that the adding enriched services to our communities. It becomes apparent that these social benefits create tremendous economic value in the community,” added Deutchman. “The goal is to encourage self-sufficiency. This vital link is all too often missing in housing programs.”
Planned veteran specific neighborhoods will include peer-to-peer dialogue for veterans with PTSD, PTSD counseling, domestic violence counseling, Window Between Worlds art program for trauma victims, speakers from the VA, local representatives and others who can help connect veterans and their families to all benefits they are entitled to. Many of our clients are lacking the basic skills to help break the cycle of dependency. HFH SFV/SCV works with our clients to provide self-sufficiency training programs that allow a family the ability to make it on their own, to be self-reliant and financially independent. The self-sufficiency standard means a family’s basic expenses—housing, food, childcare, health care, transportation, and taxes – are covered without public or private assistance.
The Home Depot Foundation’s funding will make this neighborhood dream possible while their Team Depot associates will assist in making it a reality. HFH SF/SCV has worked with Team Depot associates on veteran housing projects for several years now, their experience, hard work, and dedication makes them excellent team leaders and volunteers.
Through the Home Depot Foundation’s help, HFH SF/SCV is able to provide housing to low-income veterans and low-income disabled veterans. HFH SF/SCV will then provide the training and education needed for the veterans to become successful, whether that is getting out of debt, finding a career or moving safely within their own home.
The home front is a better, safer, place of pride thanks to the Home Depot Foundation.