Operation Homefront, Inc

When a service member is injured, the whole family suffers. Operation Homefront Villages, our transitional housing program, provides rent-free transitional housing to wounded warriors leaving the military. Operation Homefront Villages are designed to enable military families to heal together, while bridging what can be a 12-month gap between when military pay stops and veteran benefits begin.

Veterans’ disability claims can take as much as two years to be reviewed. In the meantime, families already facing the challenges of lengthy and complex recovery and rehabilitation processes are further stressed by daunting financial burdens. Our Villages relieve the financial stress and provide a comprehensive package of individualized family support and financial planning services.

Each participating family is provided with:
• Rent-free, utility-free, fully furnished apartment
• Case management and customized transition plans
• One-on-one financial planning
• Employment coaching
• Medical referrals
• Support network

The injured service members and their families experience a supportive environment among understanding peers - most making impressive financial progress during their stay, leaving the Village debt free (or nearly so), and with an emergency savings plan in place. Families stay an average of 8-12 months, with the average annual cost of $30,000 provided by Operation Homefront.

Operation Homefront has three Villages with a total of 30 apartments located in Gaithersburg, MD; San Diego, CA; and San Antonio, TX. In 2018, Operation Homefront provided 364 months of rent-free housing in our Villages to 55 service members and 200 family members.

Since the 9/11 terror attacks, more than two million Americans have served in overseas combat zones. Tens of thousands have returned home with severe physical injuries and devastating psychological wounds, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Across the United States, Veteran Caregiver Support (VCS0 provides crucial support for the family and non-family caregivers of service members severely injured and traumatized on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The VCS program provides vital peer-to-peer support for family caregivers of our wounded warriors. Their spouses and other family and non-family caregivers face enormous challenges as they care for their loved ones 24/7 and cope with personality changes, anger flare-ups, frustrations, and compassion fatigue. The stress can be exhausting and overwhelming, often leading to divorce and family break-up. VCS helps family caregivers overcome challenges including and anxiety, compassion fatigue and burn-out, managing PTSD/TBI behaviors, plus relationship and intimacy issues.

In-person peer support groups at more than 65 locations provide a strong foundation of support for the daily challenges of caregiving and connect caregivers to others who "have walked in their shoes.” Annual all-expenses-paid caregiver retreats offer respite, expert coaching, and assistance in developing caregiver skills. The program also provides confidential, one-on-one support in-person, online, and by phone from mental health professionals with experience in military trauma. Up-to-date resources for caregivers—24/7 online and via our monthly newsletter—keep caregivers in the loop.

Through periodic off-site retreats, caregivers are able to enhance their skills, get much-needed respite, build peer connections, and get the hope they need to continue facing the daily challenges of caregiving. 3,754 caregivers have joined Hearts of Valor since program inception in 2011.

Operation Homefront created the Permanent Homes for Veterans (PHV) program with the assistance of our corporate partners to award mortgage-free homes and provide supportive services to our nation’s veterans and military families.

Recipients of PHV homes include wounded warriors, veterans, military families with both spouses serving, and former Operation Homefront Village residents. Since the program began, Operation Homefront has placed over 700 families into homes, and over 600 of those families have graduated the program to date, receiving mortgage-free deeds to those properties.

How it works:

Step 1: Veterans and military families go to www.operationhomefront.org and complete the program application

Step 2: Operation Homefront reviews the applications and selects a recipient

Step 3: The selected family resides in the home as an Operation Homefront tenant for 1–2 years. The family also participates in a customized transition plan, including financial counseling and savings planning.

Step 4: Home is deeded mortgage-free to families successfully completing the program.

In this permanent housing program, Operation Homefront financial contributions include supportive services, case management and home repairs. Recipient’s financial contributions include property taxes, homeowner association fees, and the home warranty. The average cost to Operation Homefront is $10,640 per home.

Operation Homefront provides one-on-one homeowner counseling services including debt reduction and emergency savings, credit score improvement, homeownership guidance, and community integration. The duration of homeowner counseling services lasts from 1–2 years.

In 2020, we placed 23 new client families in mortgage-free homes, and deeded another 32 homes to program graduates, totaling nearly $5 million in property value awarded to clients.

Operation Homefront helps military families by providing recurring family support services through a variety of programs designed to ensure that short-term needs don’t turn into chronic long-term struggles.

Through our recurring family support programs in 2020, we provided holiday meals for 15,616 families and back to school supplies for 35,458 military children. We honored 125 military spouses at "Homefront Celebration" events and celebrated 528 new and expectant parents at Star-Spangled Baby Shower events.

The Military Child of the Year® Award recognizes outstanding military children who demonstrate resiliency, leadership and achievement while facing the challenges of military family life. Recipients representing each service branch are recognized annually at a Washington, DC gala celebration in April.

The Operation Homefront Hamilton Innovation Award for Military Children goes to a military child who has designed a bold, creative solution to address a local, regional or global challenge. With a new invention, improvement to existing technology, creation of a new nonprofit or community service group or expansion of an existing membership organization, the winner shows the power of innovative thinking.

Back-To-School Brigade provides military children with backpacks stuffed with supplies, relieving families of this cost and enabling them to use their income for other household expenses. Brand new backpacks for military children contain an impressive inventory of supplies to make sure they are ready the first day of school. In 2018, the National Retail Federation estimated that the average family would spend $673.57 for back-to-school items, including clothes, shoes, supplies, and electronics. When combined with other childcare costs, military families sometimes face difficult choices about whether to ensure their children are well supplied for school or to put food on the table.

Holiday Meals for Military primarily helps junior enlisted military families (E1–E6) celebrate the holidays by providing them with healthy fixings for a traditional holiday meal through the help of donations and corporate partners. We even provide additional food for a family holiday breakfast.

Holiday Toy Drive brings the joy of the holiday season to military kids across the country. With repeated and extended deployments and frequent relocations, many service members and their families face financial hardships and must forgo spending money on holiday gifts. Our military parents sacrifice so much for our country—they shouldn’t have to sacrifice the joy a toy can bring their child during the holiday season.

Homefront Celebrations honor military spouses and recognize their indispensable contributions while building their peer support networks and enhancing their skills to meet the challenges of daily life. A spouse left at home while a service member deploys knows the reality of being the sole provider for the family’s physical and emotional needs. Frequent moves, uprooting children from school and friends, and delaying personal goals are among the challenges of military life. Homefront Celebrations offer a night out and the opportunity to meet and enjoy the camaraderie of other spouses who have similar life opportunities and challenges. Operation Homefront staff connects with military spouses and make them aware of the kinds of assistance Operation Homefront can offer should a need arise.

Our Star-Spangled Babies program provides baby showers to expecting service members and their growing families. Due to deployments and frequent relocation, military parents-to-be often live far from their extended families and support systems. And like many new parents, they have questions, concerns, and fears. The Star-Spangled Babies showers provide these new and expecting parents with early childhood education tips and a support system when loved ones are far away.