Giving Hope by Building Homes

SBCA’s members have made a difference through its partnership with OFH

For more than a decade, SBCA and its component manufacturer (CM) and supplier members have collaborated with Operation Finally Home (OFH), an organization that has traditionally provided mortgage-free homes to wounded veterans, first responders, and their families. As SBCA’s partnership with OFH evolves in 2024, and the mission of OFH expands, the association wants its members to know how they can continue to support this incredible organization. 

Origins of OFH

Dan Wallrath, a home builder in Texas, was approached in 2005 by a vendor whose son was a Marine and had been injured in the line of duty. The vendor asked Dan if he could help remodel the son’s home to make it easier to enter the house and get around. Dan was originally skeptical because he was a custom home builder and didn’t do modification work. But after he learned about the son’s journey to become a Marine, and that he was coming home in a wheelchair, Dan couldn’t turn his back on the request.

Dan worked with his home builders association and supply chain to complete the project at no cost to the family. It opened Dan’s eyes to how great the home building community is and the benefits it could provide to people in a similar situation. When the initial project was completed, Dan believed he was called to continue doing the same thing for other wounded veterans, and so he founded OFH. 

In OFH’s first year, Dan built his first mortgage-free house. He quickly partnered with his local home builders association (HBA) and expanded OFH’s reach. Word spread quickly, and in 2010, Dan was named a Hero of the Year by CNN. In December 2013, CNN followed up on the award with a feature documentary on OFH and its early accomplishments. This national attention opened the floodgates for applications and required Dan to expand his organization rapidly.

SBCA’s Early Partnership

In 2010, at one of the lowest points of the prolonged housing recession, SBCA created BCMC Build to bring CM and supplier members together the weekend before the annual BCMC to frame a house for a deserving recipient in the city hosting the trade show. Initially, BCMC Build partnered with Habitat for Humanity, but in late 2012 it reached out to Dan and OFH to build a house near San Antonio, Texas, at BCMC 2013.

In October 2013, SBCA CM and supplier members framed a house for PFC Cody Nussbaum in two days, and then walked him through his house on the third day. The walk was a miracle in many ways. Cody had been ambushed by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in 2011, and was initially given 50/50 odds he would survive the eleven gunshots he received. After 65 surgeries to repair the extensive damage, and over a year of intense physical therapy to recover the use of his extremities, Cody regained his ability to walk. The tour of his new house was a complete surprise, as OFH had kept its construction a secret, and those who had volunteered to help frame his house were on hand to witness his incredible shock and gratitude.

Through BCMC Build and OFH, SBCA built houses for Staff Sergeant Anthony Feaster, Army Specialist Bo Kitelinger, and Army Sergeant Drew Wroblewski in subsequent years. In 2020, the Structural Building Components Association  of the Capital Area was instrumental in providing a home for Marine Sgt Thomas Brennan in Culpepper, Virginia. Each charity-build event and walk-through with the veteran and family has underscored the valuable mission of OFH and the role the component manufacturing industry could play in helping to accomplish that mission.

OFH’s Expanding Mission

Since 2005, OFH has worked on more than 430 home projects in 32 states. Not all of these have been new homes. In response to the devastation in Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, OFH returned to its roots and completed 10 modification projects for veterans. While the initial modification was prompted by damage caused by the natural disaster, it shed light on the challenge many veterans were facing as they age in their homes. 

“In 2020, the modification really picked up and we did 30 projects in one year,” says Rusty Caroll, OFH’s president. “We really haven’t promoted it and yet we currently have 150 individuals identified that need help through the program.”

The modification projects are mostly centered around accessibility, which might include adding ramps to entryways, expanding doorways and hallways to accommodate wheelchairs, and removing access barriers to showers and front doors. Because many of the veteran recipients are aging, the exteriors of their homes often need repair as well, whether it’s new shingles, new siding, new windows, or foundation repairs.

“Sometimes we identify a home that is simply not inhabitable anymore,” says Rusty. “We have to tear the structure down and start over. Fortunately,” he continues, smiling, “we’ve developed considerable experience in that area.”

Another area in which OFH has expanded its mission is in providing transitional housing for wounded veterans. “Through a partnership with Lowes, OFH has started providing materials to high school trade programs to build tiny homes to serve as transitional housing,” says Rusty. “Not only does it allow us to help a veteran at a point in time when they really need housing, but these houses can be used over and over by veterans as they move to more stable situations.”

OFH currently works with five high schools in Texas, with about 50 students in each program annually. “That’s a lot of young people who are learning about home building while also learning more about our service men and women and the challenges they sometimes face when they reintegrate into the private sector,” says Rusty.

SBCA’s Evolving Partnership

In 2023, OFH completed 12 new homes. One of them was for Army Sergeant Tory Honda in DeForest, Wisconsin. Sgt. Honda’s mortgage-free house was built by Tim O’Brien Homes and was in part funded through the new SBCA Foundation & Endowment. 

The new SBCA Foundation is a wholly owned subsidiary of SBCA and is a 501 (c) (3) organization that can accept charitable donations from both individuals and businesses and provide a tax benefit.

As a result, SBCA CM and supplier members have several options if they want to help support OFH’s mission.  They can partner with a local home builder providing dollars or in-kind contributions leading to the construction of a new home for a wounded veteran or first responder, or they can donate financial resources to the SBCA Foundation, which will give OFH a grant award to go toward the construction of a new, mortgage-free house. 

While the direct connection between a builder and a CM can be very beneficial for a project, it can be difficult for a CM to find a builder in their market who is ready, willing, and able to partner with OFH at any given time. The benefit of the SBCA Foundation option is that it allows CMs to contribute from anywhere in the country and for that contribution to have an almost immediate impact on whatever project OFH already has on the go. 

Giving Hope

“Having the ability to be nimble and have such great partners like SBCA has allowed us to reach veterans and first-responders where they are at,” says Rusty. “We have learned so much about all the ways these individuals are suffering, it’s not always a physical ailment. It not only affects them, but it also impacts their families and communities. We give them hope. A home allows them to set aside some of their biggest worries and focus on being productive. It’s an impact that radiates out from the individual to everyone around them.”

If you’d like to learn more about OFH’s 2024 projects, visit OperationFinallyHome.org, and if you’d like to give a charitable donation in support of OFH to the SBCA Foundation, visit https://sbca.foundation/.