Two military veterans were awarded free homes in a new Orange County community Monday, arriving in a motorcade as hundreds of onlookers waving American flags cheered for them.
”This is truly life-changing for us. It’s basically like giving a golden ticket to veterans,” said retired U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Kaia Santana. “You’ve elevated our quality of life and showed that we matter, that our service mattered, that sacrifice means something to somebody and that we are seen and appreciated.”
Santana was injured on a military base in Iraq in 2005. She and her husband and three children will share the two-story home with a backyard pool.
Santana and retired U.S. Army Sergeant James Burse were awarded the homes through the Building Homes for Heroes, a national program that began after 9-11, and the home construction company Pulte Group’s Built to Honor program. Both programs aim to provide free homes to injured veterans and first responders.
The veterans’ new homes sit next to each other in Pulte’s EverBe community, located east of Orlando International Airport.
Each 2,563-square-foot home has five bedrooms and three bathrooms. Single-family homes in EverBe typically sell from about $435,000 up to $785,000, according to the community website.
The families got their first glimpses of the completed homes after a ceremony held under a tent set up between the new houses.
“We’ve had the pleasure of doing this one other time in Central Florida and this time we decided we could do two at one time,” said Clint Ball, president of Pulte Group’s Central Florida division. “We are so thrilled to be able to welcome the Burse and Santana families into our community, into Orlando and into our family.”
Santana served 19 years in the Air Force, completing tours of duty in Greece, Guam, Iraq and Japan before being honorably and medically discharged in 2016.
She sustained multiple injuries while on deployment and has struggled with bouts of post-traumatic stress disorder in the past, stemming from continuous IED and mortar attacks on the base in Iraq.
After her time in the military, Santana pursued an education in culinary arts and accepted a position at Walt Disney World in 2023.
Burse completed deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, serving nine years before sustaining injuries in a 2009 explosion while overseas. He suffered nerve damage in his back as a result of the explosion, forcing him to learn how to walk again and leaving him with PTSD, extreme migraines and other issues.
Honorably and medically retired since 2015, Burse and his wife Tiffany have since worked extensively with Operation Barnabas, a program helping veterans with suicidal ideations and facing homelessness.
Burse said he was homeless for a time and spent some time living in his vehicle. The new home provided to him and his wife shows the benefit of giving veterans help after their years of service.
“That veteran out there with the sign up that says ‘hungry’ or ‘willing to work’, give them a shot or give them a hand because you never know,” he said. “I was that guy and look at me now, so we’ve always got to give our heroes a shot.”
___
© 2024 Orlando Sentinel
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
