Veteran given keys to brand new home, free of charge

Jimi McMahon and has family walked into their new home for the first time today, accompanied by smiles, laughs and congratulations.

The house was given to his family by the Military Warrior Support Foundation, which has partnered with Wells Fargo to help place injured and wounded veterans in new homes.

Angela Vander Werf, Real Estate Owned Manager for Wells Fargo, said, “Military Warrior Support Foundation is an awesome nonprofit that we partner with and Wells Fargo provides our REO homes and offers them to Military Warrior Support Foundation. They have their applicant list and then match up veterans that they have who are in need of homes in the areas that we are able to donate those homes.”

Before the foundation gives a home to a family, Wells Fargo will do repairs on the house to make it ready. In the case of McMahon and his family, Wells Fargo did $44,000 worth of repairs on the house.

“We do take the home,” Vander Werf said, “we want to do the rehab. At times we will do modifications if the veteran has injuries that we need to change the home and do those specific repairs to his or her injuries. Wells Fargo is committed to helping neighborhood stabilization and at the same time we’re putting Jimi and his entire family into a new home, into a new community and getting him re-acclimated back into civilian life.”

Wells Fargo’s involvement doesn’t end after passing off the key, though.

SFC, Ret. Jimi McMahon said, “For three years you’ll have a financial and personal mentor that works with the foundation that calls you once a month to make sure everything’s going good, your family’s going good, you keeping track if your finances and they just help you along the transition process for three years. After three years they actually turn the deed over to you; it’s yours free and clear.”

After an application process that included several background checks, McMahon said finding out his family had been chosen was a surreal moment, as was walking into their new home for the first time.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” McMahon said. “We didn’t know what it was going to look like. It was a good day, exciting; especially, all new appliances, new washer and dryer. All the landscaping, it didn’t look like this a week ago. It was nothing like this. I just want to say thank you to the organization and thank you to Wells Fargo for coming here supporting us, supporting my family, supporting the veterans, especially nowadays with all the bad things going on in the world. There are still some good people out there that want to help out veterans.”

Wells Fargo officially partnered with the Military Warrior Support Foundation last year and so far they have given 129 homes to injured and wounded veterans across the country.