Charity taking back home of blind veteran

Home building charity for wounded veterans questioned in lawsuit
KHOU 11 News
by Kevin Reece
Posted on March 18, 2014

HOUSTON -- Helping a Hero in West Houston is a popular charity: 100 homes built or in the works in 22 different states, but a lawsuit is publicizing an important clause in the housing contracts. And it’s a clause one Houston-area family says it didn’t know was there until their badly wounded veteran died.

A provision in the contract says that if the Veteran dies within 10 years of taking ownership that the charity can repurchase the house by repaying the Veteran's estate his original $50,000 investment.

We first told Hunter LeVine's story four years ago. The Woodlands native was blinded by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Also suffering from a traumatic brain injury and PTSD he vowed to continue living as independently as possible.

Then in December of 2011, Helping a Hero awarded him a new home in Tomball. Built through donations all Hunter had to do was take out a $50,000 mortgage and the home was his. It is the standard shared expense agreement the charity uses for all of its projects so the veterans have a financial stake in the property as well. The total value of Hunter’s new home was listed as $168,000.

But last June on a trip to Florida, Hunter died suddenly. He suffered a heart attack in his sleep. He was just 25 years old.

"Hunter was very proud of this house. It made him feel safe,” said his father Beau LeVine.

A short time later Beau LeVine says he received notice that the charity had plans for the house. They were moving to exercise a clause in the contract that the LeVines said they didn’t even know was in the paperwork.
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