As part of their mission to make housing more accessible for veterans, a construction company is giving an Army vet who developed PTSD from war a mortgage-free dream home.
Although there are many issues veterans often face when they return to civilian life, one of the most prevalent and unfortunate of them concerns a difficulty for many to secure housing.
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And while this difficulty becomes far steeper when wounds sustained during combat require a home with more accessibility features , that’s not the only factor that makes veteran homelessness a persistent problem.
That’s why building homes that accommodate the needs of veterans is such an important facet of the work being done by the Gary Sinise Foundation , but there’s some relief in knowing that this isn’t the only organization that veterans can turn to .
And that’s what one Texas man discovered after a friend talked him into signing up for a program that is now changing his life.
At the age of 17, David Speights enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2005.
As People reported, this was partially due to the events of 9/11 , but also as a means to achieve some stability after spending most of his childhood on the move.
But while Speights loved his stint in the Army and largely described it as the best time in his life, it also brought him challenges he’s still working to overcome.
While serving in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2007, Speights injured his back after a fall from a hill and was near a rocket-propelled grenade when it detonated.
As a result, he lives with PTSD and permanent nerve damage in his right leg and back, which was aggravated by the jobs he did after his medical discharge in 2011.
But while these issues mixed with a deep depression and an addiction to alcohol, he has since done a lot to overcome these struggles after embracing the fitness community and receiving support from his fiancée Ashleigh Rankin.
In his words, “I was on a downward spiral for a while, but once I actually got back into my faith and found fitness, those two outlets are what helped me to stop drinking and make better choices in my life.”
He now works as a personal trainer and has been sober for the last three years.
He is also a family man with a nine-year-old daughter and a 17-month-old son and since getting back on his feet, he’s dreamed of getting a house to raise that family in.
But while this was something he could never see himself affording on his own, another veteran he served with recommended applying for the Built to Honor program run by the construction company PulteGroup.
And despite the fact that this program specializes in building homes for veterans in his situation, Speights was convinced they would never give him a home.
But after he was asked to visit this Texas neighborhood on April 1 under the guise of a second interview for the program, he discovered he was luckier than he thought .
As he put it, “I was in shock. They said this is not an April Fool’s joke.”
When he and his family stepped out of the house shown above, Speights was surprised by over 100 Pulte employees who had a big surprise for him.
In his words, “They told us we had the home. I was stunned and didn’t know what was going on for a second.”
The family was then invited to the May 3 ground breaking ceremony we see here and their mortgage-free home is expected to be finished in the fall.
As Speights said, “It’s been a dream of mine to be able to provide a stable home that my kids can grow up in and not have to move around and meet new people all the time and change. This is going to help me provide them the stability I never had.”
h/t: People
