HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Two Army veterans are getting mortgage-free homes in Riverview through Building Homes for Heroes and Built to Honor.
Through this, more than 100 homes are created nationwide for veterans injured in combat since 2013.
Army veterans Ryan Heard and Carson Shaw were both chosen to receive homes. Heard said his family has been trying to find a home for themselves for a year.
“I was talking to somebody the other day, and they said, man, that’s got to be a dream come true,” Heard said. “I was like, really, it’s not, because there’s no way I could have ever dreamed something this amazing.”
Heard joined the Army in 2007 at 17 years old. In 2013, he suffered a traumatic brain injury from an IED explosion and received a Purple Heart.
Heard said stability is a priority for his family, but that has been difficult without their own home.
“Right now we’re living in a single bedroom,” Heard said. “The fact that we’re going to go from a single bedroom to our own home means so much to me.”
Tony Campano, Vice President of Procurement for Pulte Homes, said the organization could not choose just one family when it came down to Heard and Shaw.
He said the homes are designed to fit each family’s needs.
“Some of them have PTSD, more mental disabilities, some of them have more physical disabilities,” Campano said. “So we make sure we cater their home to be a home that they can live in for the rest of their lives.”
Campano said the homes will be the seventh and eighth homes built in Florida through the effort and should be finished by November.
Heard said the home will have a major impact on each member of his family.
“They get to have their own rooms,” Heard said. “They get to grow up in them. They get to create memories. As a family, we will create memories.”