The Home Depot Foundation and Team Depot Help Build Veteran Enriched Neighborhood Homes in Santa Clarita
The Home Depot Foundation once again helped to build the homes of low-income veterans in Santa Clarita, California with Habitat for Humanity San Fernando/Santa Clarita Valleys. They’re helping to finish what they started—the final phase of 24 homes in the 78-home Santa Clarita Veteran Enriched Neighborhood®, previously having helped to build Phase 1 in 2014 and Phase 2 in 2016.
The Home Depot Foundation carries out its volunteering efforts through Team Depot, its force of associate volunteers who work to improve the homes and lives of U.S. military veterans and their families in the communities where they live and work.
On June 22, 2017, a group of Team Depot volunteers, led by Kim Cherney, store manager of store #609 in San Fernando, braved over 100 degree heat to help frame and paint homes for low-income military veterans. Beyond the financial contribution that the Home Depot Foundation makes, physically helping to build the homes keeps costs low and the homes affordable.
These homes, built using the Homes 4 Families™ Veteran Enriched Neighborhood® model, provides low-income veterans and their families with a homeownership opportunity along with self-sufficiency and resiliency training proven to move families up into the middle class. These ongoing social services and programs include financial education, leadership training, and veteran-specific trauma informed workshops to help veterans and their families overcome some military-specific challenges.
One of the homes Team Depot will help to build will soon belong to Karen, an Army veteran and mother of 3. After returning from service in Iraq, Karen suffered from PTSD, depression, and suicidal ideations. She became homeless and hit rock bottom. After her decision to seek help and move from a homeless shelter to a low-income apartment, she was able to find employment at the homeless shelter she was living in just a year earlier. Her persistence, resilience, and support from her family helped her get back on her feet and today, she continues to work at the shelter helping others like her and is set to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree this spring. Karen and her family are set to move into one of the Phase 3 homes currently under construction. To Karen, owning a home means safety and stability, and would be a dream come true.
About The Home Depot Foundation
Since the first The Home Depot store opened in 1979, giving back has been a core value for the Company and a passion for its associates. Today, The Home Depot, in partnership with The Home Depot Foundation, focuses its philanthropic efforts on improving the homes and lives of U.S. military veterans and their families and aiding communities affected by natural disasters. Through Team Depot, the Company’s associate-led volunteer force, thousands of associates dedicate their time and talents to these efforts in the communities where they live and work.
Since 2011, The Home Depot Foundation has invested more than $198 million in veteran causes, and along with the help of Team Depot volunteers, has transformed more than 33,000 homes and facilities for veterans. To learn more and see Team Depot in action, visit Team Depot and follow us on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook.