Like our city, our nation’s veterans are experiencing an affordable housing crisis. According to a recent nationwide study, more than one in four (26 percent) of the approximately 20 million U.S. veteran households experienced a housing cost burden, and more than 1.5 million veteran households were severely cost burdened, spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing.

The construction of the Homes for Heroes house, a local public/private/nonprofit partnership, is working to change that, one family at a time.

Habitat for Humanity, Duke Energy, and the Greenville Drive honored the service and sacrifice of local veterans as they celebrated the culmination of the season-long “Home Runs for Heroes” campaign, through which Duke Energy pledged a contribution to Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County’s Veteran Build program for each home run hit by a Greenville Drive player. Through this funding effort, Duke Energy has pledged $25,000 toward the construction of a home for Ty and Felicia Rush, a local Marine Corps veteran family.

Other major donors for the Homes for Heroes effort include the John I. Smith Charities, Bank of America, BMW Manufacturing, Piedmont Natural Gas, and the Grainger Foundation, with support from the Forestry Association of SC, Starr Electric, and the Furman University student chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

The home build site is at 114 Mulberry Street, Greenville, SC. The wall raising event began at 8 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 18.