Outrage over "home that doesn't fit" for paralyzed Iraq Vet

UPDATE to this story
Veteran speaks out about Knob Hill Controversy
The Homes for Our Troops organization has built several hundred homes to assist severely injured service men and women. One home was built two years ago in Harlem for Sergeant Darryl Wallace.
Posted: 7:47 PM Jun 25, 2011
June 24, 2011

HARLEM, Ga. -- The Homes for Our Troops organization has built several hundred homes to assist severely injured service men and women. One home was built two years ago in Harlem for Sergeant Darryl Wallace.

Sgt. Wallace and his family feel Homes for Our Troops gave them a start to a brand new life -- one they thought they would not have. They just hope the Gittens' family can soon feel the same.

"It's just wonderful what they are doing for extremely wounded soldiers like me," said Sgt. Wallace. He was stationed in Afghanistan back in 2007. An IED exploded under his work truck and he lost both his legs.

"It was pretty painful, I woke up two months after it happened," he said. When he woke up his wife Tiffany was right by his side and so was the community.

In April 2009, volunteers and troops from Fort Gordon helped build a house for Sgt. Wallace. The home was one hundred percent handicap accessible with lowered counters, wider showers and doors that power open. Many felt it was the least they could do for a man who put his life on the line.
read more here
Veteran speaks out about Knob Hill Controversy

"It doesn't fit" with the neighborhood? He doesn't either. Considering how few in this country serve today, it is unlikely the HOA can value someone like him even wanting to live in their neighborhood.

Over the years there have been plenty of excuses for not wanting a home for homeless veterans because of unfounded fears centered around homeless people in general, but when they refuse to allow one for a wounded veteran to be customized for him and his family, that should have everyone outraged.

Homes for Our Troops does everything possible to provide a special house for these special veterans so they can live as comfortably as possible with the wounds they ended up with serving this country. Too bad this HOA can't value that as well.

Neighbors pull plug on injured vet's home
By Carole Hawkins
Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
An Evans neighborhood association has blocked a group that was prepared to build a home free of charge for a local veteran who was injured in Afghanistan.

The homebuilding group, Homes for Our Troops, says Knob Hill Property Owners Association approved the home's design June 2 but reversed its decision in a later meeting.

A member of the association, however, says the group got only a conditional approval, pending a review of its design; the neighborhood is carefully protected by building covenants, and the final design did not fit.

Homes for Our Troops -- a national organization that has built or remodeled homes for more than 100 severely injured veterans -- had planned to build a house for Army Sgt. 1st Class Sean Gittens and his family this weekend. Gittens suffered concussive head injuries while serving in Afghanistan. After he returned home, a brain aneurysm caused a stroke that left him partially paralyzed.
read more here
Neighbors pull plug on injured vet's home