Owners donate apartment homes to wounded U.S. Special Operations warriors and their families to help ease the pain of healing.
Every minute that Chief Warrant Officer 2 Levi Rodgers spent on the front lines in Afghanistan, he thought about his wife and two young sons.
On every one of his six tours of duty, he thought about what would happen to them if he was injured or killed. And when his vehicle struck a 300-pound roadside bomb in September 2009, killing the four other men and leaving Rodgers clinging for his life, again, he thought of his family.
Fortunately, someone else was thinking of them, too.
A month after the Taliban attack, the injured Green Beret woke up from a medically induced coma at the San Antonio Military Medical Center. Rodgers suffered from severe burns on 100 percent of his face, broke his back in several places, sustained multiple orthopedic fractures, underwent a limb-salvage program on his left leg, lost his spleen and experienced memory loss and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Doctors told the 33-year-old the extent of his injuries would require more than 10 surgeries in the course of a year as well as extensive rehabilitation. His family left Fort Bragg, N.C., to be by his side, but couldn’t spend another 11 months in the cramped hotel room they were currently sharing across from the hospital. But with Rodgers out of work and his wife, Erika, taking care of the kids and a mortgage on the East Coast, they couldn’t afford to rent an apartment in San Antonio, either.
Then Sam Raia stepped in.
As Managing Director of N.J.-based Raia Properties Corp., Raia is the co-founder and President of Homes Fit For Heroes. The 501(c)3 charity offers free, furnished apartments to wounded U.S. Special Operations soldiers and their families who would otherwise be stuck back at home or in a nearby hotel during the soldier’s rehabilitation.
Raia and his cousin, Larry, placed Rodgers in one of their family’s San Antonio apartment communities in December 2009. Since then, their charity has housed 42 other Special Operations warriors and their families in apartments donated by owners throughout the industry.
For recipients such as Rodgers, Homes Fit For Heroes has been crucial to their recovery.
“Roadside bombs don’t just blow up and injure the service member—they injure their entire family, both physically and emotionally,” Rodgers says. “My wife and kids woke up one morning and found out I was in a hospital in Texas and might die. Having them next to me every day was what helped all of us heal.”
Giving Back
Sam Raia went to five funerals in one month.
He lives and works 30 miles outside of New York City, and when two planes hit the World Trade Center towers on September 11, he lost acquaintances, friends and a college roommate.
“I was very angry and I thought of joining the military but I had a 4-month-old at the time and decided enlisting wasn’t the best approach,” Raia says. “Years went by and the desire was still there, but it was hard to figure out how I could make a difference and honor those I lost that day.”
During Christmastime 2007, a business associate gave Raia “The Lone Survivor,” a memoir about a Navy SEAL’s heroics in Afghanistan. But it was one aspect of the book in particular—when the serviceman’s hometown built him a new house—that inspired Raia to assist service men and women in a similar way.
“I didn’t have the resources to build houses, but our firm could do the next best thing,” Raia says. “We could take one or two apartments in each of our communities and set them aside for wounded veterans who are rehabilitating in hospitals that are hundreds or thousands of miles away from home.”
In 2009, after years of planning, the Raias formed Homes Fit For Heroes. The purpose of the program, Raia says, is to go above and beyond what is provided by the government and treat servicemen and women with the respect and honor they deserve.
“They can certainly recover in a modest one-bedroom studio with a kitchenette or a centrally located kitchen utilized by multiple families, which is typical of the military provided accommodations; however, we think that they and their families deserve more comfortable accommodations for the sacrifices that they have made,” Raia says. “By providing a comfortable home that includes a full kitchen and a full spectrum of amenities, the wounded soldier and their family gain a sense of normalcy to their life that is very important to the mental and physical healing of the entire family unit.”
In partnership with the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) Care Coalition—an organization that advocates for and helps wounded United States Special Operations Forces’ service members and their families—the Raias began setting aside one such unit at each of their nine properties and reaching out to other owners with larger portfolios to do the same.
If he couldn’t serve in the military, Sam Raia would try to take care of those who did.
How Can You Help?
The majority of the wounded Special Operations warriors in need of housing are sent to state-of-the-art military hospitals in San Antonio, Texas, or Washington, D.C. Homes Fit For Heroes also has a presence in Maryland, Utah, Colorado, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, with the possibility of expanding elsewhere. However, the Raias say there is a particular need for housing in Washington, D.C.
“What would be great is for us to have a bullpen of owners who are willing to participate, should a need arise,” says Larry Raia. “We’re a very small company, so we would like to create a network of owners who could even do so much as provide us with a few leads whenever we have a new family we need to place.”
Raia says the challenge is staying true to the original scope of the project—doing more for fewer—without ignoring new areas of the country with needs.
The organization—which keeps its yearly operational expenses at less than $10,000—looks for assets built in the past 10 years that are sufficiently ADA accessible for wounded soldiers.
For owners with portfolios that do not meet such criteria—or for those who are unable to donate a unit—monetary donations are greatly needed to cover the cost of soft goods and utilities. To donate, visit www.homesfitforheroes.net.
A Hero’s Welcome
One of the first keys to implementation was getting Raia Properties Corp.’s property management company on board. Fortunately, owners Mark and Rick Fogelman and their employees at Fogelman Management Group were more than willing to offer their resources to help those who risked their lives in the military.
The Memphis-based fee-management company donated one of its executive assistants, Erica Hennings, to the program. Hennings spends as much time as needed each week to coordinate move-in and move-out dates with the service members, assist other management companies that are housing members of the military and handle any other logistical issues that may arise. It can be a lot of work, but it’s a cause that is close to her heart.
“I was in the United States Marine Corps for five years and I know what it means to be away from your family,” Hennings says. “I’ve seen wives’ faces full of constant worry while their husbands are deployed and the absolute excitement when they return home. I’ve also seen the grief wives experience when their husbands die fighting for our freedom. Each person we come in contact with through this program is very aware of how fortunate they are and is quick to express their gratitude for the help they receive.”
Although there is no set limit on a military service member’s length of stay, the time frame is typically outlined prior to move in. Depending on the severity of the serviceman’s injuries, he could receive free rent and utilities for a few months to more than a year and a half after being discharged from the hospital.
The apartments—which are typically first-floor units—come fully furnished thanks to donations from furniture and appliance suppliers. Homes Fit For Heroes covers soft goods, such as pots and pans, plates and linens. The organization, which has a presence in eight states and 13 cities, also pays for the utilities if the owner who donated a particular unit is unwilling or unable to cover the cost.
In addition to financial support from within the industry, Larry Raia says fellow residents have been extremely generous and welcoming.
“These communities are really embracing the soldiers and treating them like heroes,” says Raia, Treasurer of Homes Fit For Heroes. “In Dallas, we housed a family with two young children and the community got together and decorated the kids’ rooms with soccer and princess themes. When the family moved in, there was also a stack of gift cards on the counter, a garage full of donations and a 40-pound bag of dog food for their pet. It’s extraordinary how much that feeling of acceptance within a new community helps with the healing process.”
Paying It Forward
A husband and father of four, Capt. Will Lyles always tried to take care of everything. Losing both of his legs changed all of that.
The Virginia native was in the Army for eight years when he was severely injured in Afghanistan in August 2010—four days after his 30th birthday. He suffered minor burns and shrapnel wounds, broke his right hand and became a bilateral, above-the-knee amputee. With such extensive rehabilitation required, Lyles had enough to worry about without figuring out how he could move his entire family from North Carolina to Texas.
“My wife, Eva, left North Carolina to be by my side just days after I was injured—she didn’t have time to pack or put the house up for rent,” Lyles says. “She was living in a hotel room with two double beds and four children and everyone was going stir crazy.”
The 6-foot-3 man—who once called himself “Superman” because he believed in trying to help everyone—suddenly needed a little help of his own.
A few weeks later, Homes Fit For Heroes came to the rescue. The organization arranged for the Lyles’ to move into a three-bedroom unit at Vista Ridge Apartment Homes—the same San Antonio community Rodgers called home just months prior. With 12 apartment management companies and owners currently participating in the program, the charity has yet to turn down a request for housing made by the Care Coalition advocates.
One such owner, Dennis Elmore, has donated three apartment units and says the experience has been nothing but positive for his San Antonio-based company, Embrey Partners Ltd., and the surrounding community.
“I toured a local military hospital and it was gut-wrenching to see all of these young guys who were blown up and missing legs, but all of them were incredibly positive and humble,” Elmore says. “Once you meet these servicemen, Homes Fit For Heroes is an easy program for everyone to buy into.”
In addition to the donated units, a yearly fundraiser brings in $80,000 to $100,000 in donations to cover unique housing needs not covered by an owner, accessibility requests such as a wheelchair ramp and other services for the veterans. With operational expenses of less than $10,000 a year, the majority of the money raised goes directly to wounded soldiers and their families.
Lyles says such generosity has enabled him to focus on his rehabilitation and allowed his family to be a part of the process.
“Never in my life will I be able to repay this organization for what they’ve done or properly convey what it means to me to be able to continue on with my life,” says Lyles, whose family has lived at Vista Ridge Apartment Homes for a year and a half. “I get choked up thinking about it.”
While Lyles continues to rehabilitate, others have since moved on. But Homes Fit For Heroes remains a part of their lives.
Rodgers’ family decided to make San Antonio their permanent residence and recently purchased a home in the area. The former Green Beret is now a real estate professional and vocal champion of Homes Fit For Heroes, assisting other wounded Special Operations warriors who come into the program.
It’s the least he can do, he says, for an organization that thought of him while he fought for everyone else.
Lauren Boston is NAA’s Staff Writer. She can be reached at lauren@naahq.org or 703/797-0678.