Teenagers in central Florida are helping build mortgage-free homes for injured veterans and their families through a partnership with the national nonprofit Building Homes for Heroes.
The New York-based group builds, modifies and gifts mortgage-free homes to injured veterans, first responders and Gold Star families. It recently teamed up with students from The Villages Charter School Construction Management Academy in Florida.
In May, Building Homes for Heroes presented two new homes in Lake Panasoffkee, Florida, to U.S. Army Specialist Rajae Jones and U.S. Army Sergeant James Tabares and their families.
The homes were built from the ground up by students at the charter school in partnership with the nonprofit. The work gave students hands-on experience while they learned a trade and helped veterans in their community.
“It’s a really phenomenal program, and we’re so lucky to have been able to partner with them,” said Kim Vesey, president and general counsel of Building Homes for Heroes, in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Vesey said the organization and the student program started building homes together in 2024 for a family that had been “really struggling.”
The family had lived in transitional housing while the husband dealt with a military injury and PTSD, which made it hard to keep a job, she said.
“They just found themselves in this cycle of endless struggle,” Vesey said. “They had two young boys, and they were really trying so hard.”
That family received the first home built by the students and Building Homes for Heroes. Vesey said both sons now work at the school, and the veteran runs a program at the School of Autism.
“I really can’t say enough great things about the opportunity that the school is giving to these students,” Vesey said. “The hands-on ability to not just go into a classroom and learn a trade, but to also give back to their community at the same time and to change people’s lives and see it firsthand … being able to have that kind of impact on the world and realizing that what you do matters — I can’t imagine how much that helps.”
Recent graduate Blake Tart, 18, also spoke to Fox News Digital about working on the homes.
“My experience with Building Homes for Heroes was very cool – seeing the project go from a spot of sand to a finished and decorated house,” Tart said.
“I will take the hard work and lessons learned with me into my next career path, and the most valuable lesson is that I can work on all of this myself at my own home one day.”
Tart said he comes from a family of veterans and that he and his classmates showed up every day and “worked our hardest” for the veterans receiving the homes.
“We were never satisfied with good enough – we wanted it to be perfect,” he said. “The community should always lend a helping hand to those who have served and need some help.”
Building Homes for Heroes operates in 37 US states, but Vesey said Florida has seen the highest demand for veteran housing.
She said people need a wider understanding of why some former service members need extra help.
“People don’t find themselves in situations where they can’t provide for their family out of intent,” Vesey said. “Any one of us are just a few paychecks away from being in a situation where we are unable to provide for our families.”
“Our veterans go into the military to serve their country for so many different reasons, and many of them go into that thinking it’s going to be a full-time career, just as if you’re a teacher or a lawyer or a doctor… and that’s your retirement, that’s your savings, that’s everything you need to support your family,” she said.
“So, when you go into the military thinking you’re going to put 30 years into that career, and it gets cut short because you’re injured, it’s a high risk.”
Vesey said many veterans who leave the military after an injury do not have stable housing, a college degree or a back-up career.
“You haven’t put down roots because you’ve served your country for 10 years … There is no fallback plan,” Vesey said. “When people enter this high-risk career and that career is cut short through no fault of their own to serve our country, I think it’s paramount that our country is there to serve them.”
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