Robert Arnal - FineMark National Bank & Trust (the bank financing the construction of the home); John Baughman - Construction Manager for Hemmer Construction; Lois Healy - CEO of AHF; Lawrence Heyliger – Homeowner; and Ken Falvey - AHF’s Property Manager. PHOTO PROVIDED

news@breezenewspapers.com

A dream came true for one Lehigh Acres veteran last month when ground was broken for his first home, which he purchased from the Affordable Homeownership Foundation, Inc.

“On October 8, 2021, we broke ground on Mr. Heyliger’s home,” Affordable Homeownership Foundation Inc. Executive Director Lois Healy said.

Lawrence Heyliger, a veteran who served in the United States Marine Corps from 1964 to 1970, said he visits the lot of his new home at least once a week to see the progress. In addition, he looks for any debris on the side of the road, so it does not get chopped up into pieces on his lot.

Ten years ago this month, Heyliger moved to Lehigh Acres.

“I got what I got from the good Lord above. I am not done yet. I am really grateful that this foundation exists to help people like me,” Heyliger said. “I hope they will be able to do more with other people, veterans and citizens alike. I hope that things can progress.”

After seeing an advertisement for the foundation, he looked into it and began a conversation with Healy.

“It was quite a bit involved, but simplified because the way it was presented to me for me to understand,” the 74-year-old veteran said. “The contractor and Lois, after our meeting, gave me information about the home they can build. It was amazing to me how people go through so much to help a person. You all do all of that, so a person can get a home.”

Heyliger worked with a home buying counselor at AHF throughout the entire process. Once the process began for building his own home, Heyliger picked out a lot where he would like to build his home and a floor plan was selected.

AHF has partnered with Naples-based Hemmer Construction to build Heyliger’s home. Healy said the home will be completed between four to six months due to the current shortage of materials.

“Veterans that place their lives on the line for our country deserve the best,” Healy said. “AHF enjoys helping veterans, especially when it comes to making the dream of homeownership a reality.”

Heyliger was medically discharged in 1968. He has service connected post traumatic dtress, which over the years has been very hard for him to work, as his condition caused problems.

“I came down here because I could work,” Heyliger said, which was first South Florida before this area.

He began his own business, a mobile mechanical repair service, “Larry’s Shop on Wheels,” in 1987.

“I did that until 2006. My hand was giving me so much trouble. As I got older and working as a mechanic it really got to the point where it would stay swollen,” Heyliger said. “I had no other income. I had no other choice. I had to keep going with that until I couldn’t go anymore.”

He said he managed to work his way through, sustaining himself and renting places as he went.

“I was always on the borderline of going on welfare,” Heyliger said. 

But now with the help of the foundation, his first home became a reality.

“I am very glad that it is coming to be, my family is too,” he said.

Healy, a veteran, said the foundation formed in 2000 to build affordable housing in the area for low to moderate income individuals.

“The founding director decided he believed that families needed stability,” she said. “The only way to become stable in the neighborhood is to own their own home.”

Robert Shellman, the founder, passed away in 2006 and Healy began running the foundation part-time for five years before she became full-time in 2010.

Healy said when she was a loan officer at a bank she helped clients obtain loans to purchase homes, which sometimes took up to three years to become qualified. She said in 2013 they became partners with the National Community Stabilization Trust and began receiving property from banks that were either foreclosed, or short sales.

“We would rehab them and fix them up. Part of the program was the veterans housing program. We would have to sell the houses to veterans at 10 percent lower market value,” she explained.

The program ended in 2016 with 23 houses.

In 2014, AHF began a veteran homeownership program.

“We have a lot of veterans that volunteer for the organization. We help move veterans that need to move, provide them with furniture and locate housing for them. We house about five veterans that were homeless previously in our rental housing units,” Healy said.

“From 2016 to now we have been building affordable rental units and houses for sale,” she said.

A new office is in the midst of beginning in Western North Carolina where there are quite a few homeless veterans, she said, adding they are locating land to build tiny houses on to create communities for veterans.