Veterans Build is Habitat for Humanity’s national initiative to provide housing solutions along with volunteer and employment opportunities to U.S. veterans, military service members and their families. Habitat for Humanity of Wausau recently became a Veterans Build affiliate, pledging to build, educate, employ, engage and/or honor area veterans.
Veterans Build Projects
Veterans helping Veterans is at the heart of the Veterans Build program. Habitat Wausau and it’s volunteers assisted a local Veteran with repairs to his home entrance, garage, landscaping, deck and several other critical repairs. This Veteran homeowner had limited mobility and a fixed income prevented him from repairing the issue on his own. These critical home repairs prevented fines from the municipality, created a safer environment for the homeowner, and helped extend the life of the home.
Veterans Build Weekly Cup of Coffee
Habitat for Humanity of Wausau had the pleasure of joining Veterans Weekly Cup of Coffee several times to thank local veterans for their service to our country and to treat them to a cup of coffee and a piece of pie. It was such a great opportunity to meet these amazing veterans and hear their stories! Several of our Habitat volunteers who are also veterans joined us and thanks to all veterans for your service and sacrifice!
Facts About Veterans
The National Low Income Housing Coalition finds that 2.5 million veterans heading households are at least 55 years of age. Of those 2.5 million veterans, 24% have housing cost burdens. Unlike our older civilians, our older veterans are more likely to have a disability — 35% versus 28% — which may require home modifications, health and other supportive services as they age.
Our female veteran population is in need as well. According to a report by the National Housing Conference, nearly half of our veterans who are single mothers spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Our female veterans face significant economic and housing challenges and are particularly vulnerable to housing cost burdens compared with our overall veteran population.
Likewise, our most recent veterans who served following 9/11 have returned to a slow-growing economy and rising housing costs. These economic factors have made the transition from military service to civilian life difficult for many of our veterans.
In addition, nearly 4 million of our veterans pay at least 30% of their income toward rent or mortgage, while more than 1.5 million pay at least 50%. As you can imagine, using half of your income to pay your rent or mortgage is an enormous strain on any budget. Source: https://www.habitat.org/volunteer/near-you/veterans-build
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