Home Depot pitches in for veterans houses

Team Depot works together in completing their renovation for a veteran neighborhood on Wednesday. Courtesy image: Katie Cromwell
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The Home Depot Foundation partnered with Homes 4 Families to complete renovations in a Veteran Enriched Neighborhood in Santa Clarita on Wednesday.

More than 75 members of Team Depot, a group comprised of associates from Home Depot, worked together to renovate 78 single-family homes near 21550 Centre Pointe Parkway. The foundation has invested $250 million in veteran causes and helped to improve more than 41,000 veteran homes that span over 4,000 cities across the country.

“Giving back and doing the right thing are our core values,” said Kim Cherney, Team Depot captain. “So, that’s why it’s very important that our mission is enriching veterans’ lives, making sure that we work for veteran communities.”

Not only did the group consist of associates, Cherney said some of those associates were veterans themselves who wanted to find a way to give back. Sign-up sheets were quickly filled out by associates upon finding out of this next phase of the project. The enthusiasm to apply was based on veterans’ own sense of pride to attend and help, Cherney said.

“In this instance, we partnered with Homes 4 Families, and there’s a veteran community that has over 250 homes that we actually worked with over the last six years,” Cherney said.

Veterans who applied for the VEN had to be honorably discharged and living within a certain income bracket. The number of children raised within a veteran’s family and any disability were also taken into consideration.

Over the last three years, 69 vets and their families have moved in to the VEN, with the remaining applicants set to move in to their new homes by April 1.

“The veterans not only have the opportunity to receive a home, but they also receive social services particularly around PTSD programming and traumatic brain injury programming,” said Donielle DeLeon, director of corporate and community engagement at Homes 4 Families.

A new project for veterans’ homes is underway in the Palmdale/Lancaster area, DeLeon said, while the final phase of the current VEN will be a park dedicated to The Home Depot for its help, according to Cherney.

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