Building Homes for Heroes

Building Homes for Heroes® is determined and devoted to bringing renewed hope to our nation’s injured veterans. The organization builds or modifies homes, and gifts them, mortgage-free, to injured veterans and their families, while providing support services to enable them to build better and brighter lives and reach new heights. It’s truly an honor to serve the men and women who have courageously served and sacrificed for our country.

Since 2006, Building Homes for Heroes® has been at the forefront of making a significant difference in the lives of wounded American service members and their families. The organization gifts mortgage-free homes that meet the needs of the men and women who have selflessly served our country. These homes not only help to remove the family’s financial burden, they help to restore the individual’s freedom, and enable the veteran to lead a more independent and productive civilian life.

Organizational efficiency and sound fiscal responsibility are of utmost importance at Building Homes for Heroes®; neither the CEO nor its board members are compensated for their duties. The organization strives to keep fundraising and administrative costs at a minimum, thus only a small percentage of funds are allocated to overhead costs.  The organization aims to gift and modify 40 homes in 2021, equal to more than one home every 11 days.

Each home recipient is provided a Certified Financial Planner® through a partnership with the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA). This benefit is designed to provide the new, and sometimes first-time, homeowners with a NAPFA financial planner who provides pro-bono financial advice and guidance necessary to maintain home expenses, pay property taxes and to plan for a successful future.

Building Homes for Heroes® encourages the wounded veterans we have assisted, or are currently assisting, to travel to our events and take part in other organizational endeavors to support other men and women who have been severely injured. The organization believes that this enables our recipients to build camaraderie with other wounded veterans who may later become recipients, but also to take another step toward being defined by their accomplishments and activities, and not their injuries or disabilities.

If you are a wounded veteran, you will need to provide the following (if applicable):

• DD Form 214, Certificate of Release/Discharge from Active Duty
• Photos to help tell your story (i.e. before injury, during recovery, after recovery, family photos, military photos, etc.)
• Signed Photo Release Waiver and Authorization to Release Information Waiver

Thank you for your service to our country. Building Homes for Heroes® is proud to announce that it has embarked on a partnership with Chase Bank in an initiative to provide homes to wounded veterans throughout the country.  Chase Bank will provide homes to Building Homes for Heroes® who then identifies and selects families of severely wounded veterans across the United States to receive the homes.

Please read the following information carefully before submitting your application.

Qualifying Criteria:

• Were you injured after September 11, 2001?
• Have you been, or will you be, honorably discharged from the United States Armed Forces?
• Do you, or your spouse, currently own a home or land? If so, you are not eligible for a home gift at this time.

General Information:

1. Homes are awarded to veterans who have been injured after September 11, 2001 and are not currently homeowners on an availability basis. Submitting an application does not mean you will receive a home. Please understand there are far more applicants then there are available homes. While we will do everything we can to help as many injured veterans as possible, we will not be able to help everyone who applies.
2. Once you submit your application and all necessary supporting documents, you do not need to do anything else. Due to the large volume of applications received, we will only contact you if we should need any additional information or if you have been selected to be interviewed.
3. If you wish to update your application and cannot do so online, please email any updates to Gina.Cerami@buildinghomesforheroes.org. Due to the large volume of applicants, you will not receive a response unless more information is needed.
4. Home decisions are made on an individual basis. Each case is unique and you should not rely on the information or process of another recipient or candidate for future outcome.

The way the program works:

1. Building Homes for Heroes has specific homes that are available for donation. Click here to view the available homes. If you find a home you would like to be considered for, write down the city and state the home is in. You will be asked for the home you are applying for on the application. *You can apply for as many homes as you would like.
2. If you are applying for more than one home, number them in the order in which you would prefer them. If you cannot find a home on the website you are interested in applying for at this time, you may still submit an application, but you will be put on a waiting list until you find a home to apply for. Please continue to visit the website and let us know when a home becomes available you would like to be considered for. Homes are gifted to us as they become available. We do not know if, or when, a home will become available in any specific area. It is up to you to monitor the available homes and email Gina.Cerami@buildinghomesforheroes.org when you have found a home to add to your application.
3. Applications will be considered for new home builds in extreme and limited circumstances. In order to be considered, you must have already received your approval letter from the VA for the Specially Adaptive Housing (SAH) grant. Please submit this letter with your application.

What you will need to apply:

1. The application must be completely filled out. Please read every question and answer them fully and to the best of your ability. Do not summarize. Please use full legal names and relationships.
2. Photo release waiver and Information Release waiver, both filled out, signed and uploaded (Provided in application)
3. Photos to help tell your story (e.g., before injury, during recovery, after recovery, family photos, military photos, etc.) The more the better.
4. Two (2) Letters of Recommendation (a minimum of 1 must be from a Case Worker or Veteran Advocate). Letters must be on letterhead and signed.
5. DD Form 214 (if unavailable, please upload a word document detailing your specific situation and when approximately you plan on being discharged)
6. Medical records. If your medical records are too large to upload, then upload the summary or first few pages. We will contact you if we need more information.