An Army veteran who spent more than nine years living with his family in RVs is scheduled to get the keys to a new house in Anna on Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, through Operation Homefront's Permanent Homes for Veterans program.
Military.com reported Tuesday that Branden Cason, his wife, Vanessa, and their family will move into a newly built home that PulteGroup is donating through its national Built to Honor initiative. The house is in a neighborhood the builder is developing in Anna.
Two years, then the deed
The home is not handed over outright. Under the nonprofit's program, the Casons will live there rent-free for roughly two years while working with caseworkers and financial counselors on goals such as paying down debt, building savings and preparing for the cost of upkeep. If they finish the program, Operation Homefront says, they receive the deed with no mortgage.
Kyler Olejnik, Operation Homefront's vice president of housing, told Military.com the aim is for every veteran in the program to leave it "in a stronger position" than when the nonprofit first met them.
From Iraq to a fifth-wheel trailer
Cason enlisted in 2007 and deployed to Iraq the next year, according to the Military.com account and a biography Operation Homefront supplied. In October 2008 an improvised explosive device hit his convoy while he was standing in a Humvee's gunner's hatch; the blast drove the hatch lid into his head.
