Steven Johnson
What happens when a soldier comes home from war and can’t get through his own front door?
November is National Veterans and Military Families Month, and this special episode of ChangeMakers, Katie Goar talks with Steven Johnson, Executive Director of Purple Heart Homes and a 27-year U.S. Army veteran. Purple Heart Homes was founded by Dale Beatty and John Gallina after their vehicle hit an anti-tank mine in Iraq in 2004. Their community built Dale an accessible home, and that experience became a national nonprofit that has completed about 1,800 projects for roughly 4,000 service-connected disabled veterans.
Steven covers the organization’s three main programs: Veterans Aging in Place, Veteran Home Ownership and the new modular home program. That includes the accessible home they built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in six days for a formerly homeless veteran. He also talks about veteran homelessness, why cities should allow ADUs and modular housing, and simple ways civilians can help.
“We wouldn’t leave someone behind on the battlefield. Why would we do it at home?” – Dale Beatty, Co-Founder, Purple Heart Homes
Learn more or get involved: https://phhusa.org Learn more about Katie Goar: https://quadel.com
What You’ll Learn
November is National Veterans and Military Families Month, and this special episode of ChangeMakers, Katie Goar talks with Steven Johnson, Executive Director of Purple Heart Homes and a 27-year U.S. Army veteran. Purple Heart Homes was founded by Dale Beatty and John Gallina after their vehicle hit an anti-tank mine in Iraq in 2004. Their community built Dale an accessible home, and that experience became a national nonprofit that has completed about 1,800 projects for roughly 4,000 service-connected disabled veterans.
Steven covers the organization’s three main programs: Veterans Aging in Place, Veteran Home Ownership and the new modular home program. That includes the accessible home they built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in six days for a formerly homeless veteran. He also talks about veteran homelessness, why cities should allow ADUs and modular housing, and simple ways civilians can help.
“We wouldn’t leave someone behind on the battlefield. Why would we do it at home?” – Dale Beatty, Co-Founder, Purple Heart Homes
Learn more or get involved: https://phhusa.org Learn more about Katie Goar: https://quadel.com
What You’ll Learn
- How two wounded Iraq War veterans turned their own injuries into a national housing nonprofit
- Why accessible housing affects veterans’ mental health, not just their physical safety
- How the Veterans Aging in Place program helps veterans stay in their homes with ramps, wider doors, roll-in showers and lowered cabinets
- How the Home Ownership program gives veterans “a hand up, not a handout”: homes at about 60% of value with a soft mortgage that’s waived after five years
- How a modular home was built on the National Mall in six days and set on its foundation in Virginia
- The scale of the need: possibly 100,000+ veterans who could use help
- How modular homes, ADUs and zoning changes can help address veteran homelessness
- What a city needs to have in place to partner on a “veteran village”
- How volunteers, churches and companies get involved through the Bugle sign-up system
- Simple ways any civilian can support veterans in their community
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