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Supporting Heroes: Tunnel to Towers Foundation's Mission to Transform Veteran Lives

• Rowena Patton

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Discover the extraordinary mission of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation as we hear from Gavin Naples, Vice President of the Homeless Veterans Program. Gavin shares the impactful work being done to support America's heroes, including providing mortgage-free homes to veterans and first responders. With powerful endorsements from public figures like Jelly Roll and Cole Hauser, this episode promises insights into how the foundation is making a real difference and how you can be a part of it.

Learn about the innovative strategies Tunnel to Towers employs to combat veteran homelessness and support their families. This includes transforming hotels into housing and creating Veterans Villages in cities across the U.S., such as Houston and Denver. These initiatives offer not just a home but a community, complete with employment assistance and behavioral health services, ensuring veterans have the support they need as they transition back to civilian life.

We also share poignant stories of resilience, like Mike's battle with lymphoma and the critical support his family received. The emotional journey of Jeff's family after his passing underscores the foundation's role in providing stability during the toughest times. Gavin's transition from real estate to a life dedicated to serving veterans highlights the dedication and passion driving Tunnel to Towers' efforts. Join us for a heartfelt exploration of these life-changing programs and the heroes they honor.

Speaker 1:

This is the Plain English Real Estate Show with your host, rowena Patton, a show that focuses on the real estate market in terms you can easily understand. Call Rowena now. The number is 240-9962 or 1-800-570-9962. Now here's the English girl in the mountains, the agent that I would trust, rowena Patton.

Speaker 2:

September 11th 2001.

Speaker 3:

I get a phone call by a firefighter. He said nobody's coming home.

Speaker 4:

The people needed our help and we were going to go help them.

Speaker 2:

On September 11th 2001,. Fdny firefighter Steven Siller strapped 60 pounds of gear on his back and raced on foot through the tunnel to the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, where he gave his life while saving others. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation has been supporting America's heroes ever since. We provide the surviving families of fallen first responders and military members with mortgage-free homes and build specially adapted mortgage-free smart homes for America's most catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. We're also committed to eradicating veteran homelessness. Come support the Tunnel to Towers Foundation at one of our many events throughout the year. Join us in supporting our heroes by donating $11 a month now.

Speaker 5:

Hi everyone. It's Rowena Patton, your friend in real estate, here with you today on Real Estate News Radio. This is the show you've been waiting for. I've been promising to bring leadership from Tenor to Towers onto the show, a course we proudly support through the Listing Royalty Network, and today that promise is a reality. We've got a very special guest, Gavin Naples, who leads the Homeless Veterans Program at Tenor Towers. We're diving into the incredible work they're doing to support those who served our country. Stay with us. It's going to be an inspiring conversation.

Speaker 4:

We're talking about the people who have put their lives on the line for this great country, the people who have lost and paid the greatest price for our freedom for guys like me to be able to go sing songs about whatever I want to sing about every single night, and we're talking about an organization that helps support families and support the people that are running into the danger that the rest of us are running away from, and that's the kind of people I want to be beside. Those are the real heroes. Man, I'm just a big fat guy with a guitar. Hey y'all, this is Jelly Roll and I am asking you to give $11 a month to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation is committed to honoring the dignity of the American service member and is committed to helping end homelessness amongst the veteran community and ensure no veteran is left behind. Providing a safe and dignified home is an imperative part of helping veterans who are homeless reclaim their lives. Donate $11 a month by calling 1-844-BRAVEST or visit T2Torg.

Speaker 5:

Hi everyone. I'm so excited today we have Gavin, who's the VP of the Homeless Veteran Program at Tunnel to Towers, with us, and we've been trying to set up this interview for a very long time. And you guys, what I love about you, gavin, is that you run this program somewhat on a shoe screen so that you can give back 95.1% of every dollar to the program. I mean, that's unheard of, isn't it?

Speaker 6:

It's pretty exceptional. We run very lean. I'm working out of a strip mall on Staten Island right now. Our CEO is uncompensated and all the money really does go to our programs and to our veterans and first responders.

Speaker 5:

It's just quite incredible. And the number of celebrities that support you at this point. Are they paid celebrities or do they come on because they want to?

Speaker 6:

I'm guessing no, we galvanize them based on our mission, and they've been very good to us in spreading awareness as to our programs and what we're looking to do and what we have done for our injured veterans and our fallen first responder families, our Gold Star families and now our homeless veterans.

Speaker 3:

Cole Hauser is an award-winning actor who has starred in Good Will Hunting, too Fast, too Furious and the current hit show Yellowstone. Beyond his impressive career, he is a proud supporter of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. I was able to spend some time with Cole and his family to reflect on those who have sacrificed so much to defend our freedom. I know how much you care about America and our veterans and all the things, but you have such a platform now, yeah, and to share that with us, that we need to get the word out that we have to take care of these great heroes and their families.

Speaker 7:

You know, as I started to be more and more successful, it was like how can I help? But when I heard of the Tunnel to Towers and I met Brandon in Idaho and his family, I was like wow, there's actually a charity where we know where the money's going to go.

Speaker 3:

We have 95.1%. Of every dollar goes to our programs.

Speaker 7:

And I think Brandon's a great spokesman for T2T.

Speaker 3:

And his wife Shannon and his two girls. I mean, oh my God, what a family, right, special family.

Speaker 6:

So, pretty much, if you put your life on the line and something goes bad, they're there. That's awesome. Yeah, they're incredible people, man.

Speaker 7:

You saw all the stuff we put in these homes right I was blown away and you saw all the stuff we put in these homes right, I was blown away and they deserve it. They've earned it.

Speaker 3:

Of course we give them a mortgage-free home, but look what they gave up. They gave up their bodies.

Speaker 7:

So Cole, why should Americans give donate help? Tunnel to Towers Foundation, I mean, is there any better organization to help the people that have fought for this country and the freedoms that we have? It's that simple, it is that simple.

Speaker 3:

Let's take care of each other, and you're going to join us on that mission. Thank you.

Speaker 7:

Hey, I'm Cole Hauser. I want you to join me in supporting our nation's heroes and their families. It's only $11 a month. Go to t2torg.

Speaker 5:

Give me some of the names, because it always surprises me when people don't know who Tunnel to Towers are. T2torg I'm always surprised when somebody says, no, I haven't heard of them. I see your ads everywhere. I'm always watching your videos. I'm subscribed to you on YouTube. The amount of celebrities you have is just phenomenal because they really believe in what you do. Come on, throw some names out there. Yeah, no, we've been very blessed.

Speaker 6:

Obviously, mark Wahlberg has been a great sponsor of ours, andy Pettit, david Wells, jelly Roll the list goes on and on. We have quite a few. A lot of people have been very good to us over the years, you know. As you know, the foundation started in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist attacks on New York City. Firefighter Stephen Siller was a Brooklyn firefighter who was off duty that morning and he was going to play golf with his three brothers. He heard that the South Tower had been hit by the airplane, so he drove his car to the base of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, which connects Brooklynoklyn and lower manhattan. It was closed to vehicular traffic that day, and so he got out of his car, he put 60 pounds of gear on his back and he ran nearly four miles through the underground tunnel into the south tower and his body was never recovered. He died saving others that day, um, and he left behind five children.

Speaker 5:

So from that, I didn't know he left.

Speaker 6:

Yeah, that's, that's how the foundation began was from that that that ultimate uh run and that's the tunnel to towers foundation. You know, memorializing uh the steps that he took um on that day, uh to defend our country. And so his brothers and sisters got around a kitchen table 20 plus years ago 24 years ago now, it's amazing Said we have to honor what he did for our America and they started the Tunnels and Towers Foundation. And from that kitchen table we've grown to nearly a half a billion dollar organization. A year. We've given over 1,500 mortgage-free homes to injured veterans, taken over 10,000 veterans, provided them with housing assistance and access to services.

Speaker 8:

I'm Shane Thomas. I work for the State Department doing IT project management. First time I met Kate was back in Tuscaloosa. I was just coming off a deployment to Iraq and trying to complete my bachelor's degree. She had already been there pursuing her doctorate. We met through veteran service organizations that were trying to get spun up in Tuscaloosa. She would say that the 11th commandment in the Hendricks household was thou shalt join the Marine Corps. Because she joined her brother joined. Her father was a is a retired Marine Corps Colonel.

Speaker 8:

The biggest reason why I married her was because of her heart. She had a big one and she wasn't afraid to kind of show it. We learned that Matthew was on the way and we were dating at the time, had been dating for six to nine months and when we figured that out, that's when we started getting real serious and got married on May 22, 2014,. And our son was born on July 2, 2014. So we were graduating that same year. So it was time to start shipping up and shipping out. She would spoil him rotten and she loved him so much. She wanted Matthew to stay little and she wanted to be a mom.

Speaker 8:

Kate was deployed to Iraq in 2005. Her getting out of the reserves, I believe in 2013, and me being out getting out of the Army National Guard was that you could still get benefits from the VA for a certain period of time, so she and I would maintain status by going up and getting our annual physicals. Well, she was 38 at the time and one of the VA nursing assistants had made a comment and said hey, you know, I get you're 38, and I get that we're not supposed to give you a mammogram until you're 45, but because of the fact that you've been overseas, we're hearing stories through the VA that more and more women are coming back and having breast cancer. So it's probably a good idea. I'll refer you and you can go get a mammogram January 10, 2018,. She gets the call and then she turns around and calls me and says they found something and I've got a few other doctor's appointments that we've gotta start going to, and that began a whirlwind week of doctor's appointments that went from surgeons to anesthesiologists, to chemo school, to radiation school to. You know, this is the one-year game plan that we got, and the following week after that we're called back in because more scan results had come through and her oncologist at the time said so everything we did last week throw away. You've got six to ten years and that's, and you start chemo tomorrow.

Speaker 8:

And when she first said six to ten years, I asked is that how long the treatment's gonna take? Like it's just gonna be a long haul? And she didn't answer and that's when we kind of slowly started putting the pieces together that this is stage four and this is the reality that we're forced to kind of live with. There was a time period where I had to sit him down in the room and explain to him why mommy was so sick and what the side effects meant, and I said, if this doesn't work, it's not long. And he was like, what are you? And so we had to have a conversation like not long as in, mommy's not going to be here. So we just kept battling it.

Speaker 8:

Her symptoms and her side effects kept getting worse and worse and worse and then finally in I believe it was March of yeah, it was March 2022, we had run through everything. Her liver had gotten so bad that there was nothing else that they could really kind of throw at it and we entered hospice. Then she passed away April 5th 2022. Throw at it, and we entered hospice and she passed away april 5th 2022. And hospice nurse came by and announced herself to kate and tried to do some examinations, but kate wasn't moving and kate wasn't talking. Kate wasn't. She was breathing, but she she wasn't responsive, really.

Speaker 8:

And then that day it the whole transition process started. Matthew had just gotten back from his buddy's house and he wanted to come upstairs and see Mama, and I tried to get him to stay back because I didn't want him to see whatever was happening, and he waited until I came downstairs and say his final goodbyes. And then Matthew came down and he sat down in that chair and we've spent the last year and two months working through it. We embrace the fact that the only way out of this storm is through it. There's no real way, when you're dealing with grief or something like this, to outrun it. You can never outrun it. Either way. At some point or another it's gonna catch up to you and if you delay dealing with it, it could be really bad in the future.

Speaker 8:

Kate loved traveling and she made me promise her that we would not give up traveling after she was gone. So, in honor of her, every year we're gonna try and start doing a big trip. This year was Niagara Falls and we drove up there and had a great time being able to see some sights and we're probably never going to go back. And that's kind of the thing is. I want the tradition to be some place that either we haven't been to before or some place I haven't been to in a very long time, but some big bucket list-esque type items that we can kind of go see the world. That way, when it's time for him to go to college, you know he's got he's got a lot of travel underneath his belt and he can say I've seen, I've understood that the world is much bigger than just what goes on at home.

Speaker 8:

Kate's biggest regret that she had had in life and her parents and her brother and her siblings they will all back me up on this was the fact that she was two months away in being able to get full life insurance benefits. So she only got a portion of those life insurance benefits and we were able to pay off student loan debt and car debt and all this other stuff, but we didn't have enough to pay off the house and that was the biggest regret that she had in life was the fact that the mortgage was still going to be outstanding. Tunnels to Towers called me and offered to pay off our mortgage. I was skeptical of that because we had only been living here for a few years. It was a lot.

Speaker 8:

When they offered to pay off the mortgage, I didn't trust it. I didn't believe it until I actually saw it. And then, when I finally saw it, I think everybody kind of lost it Because the one thing, the one piece of unfinished business for Kate, had finally been finished. If you had that one five-minute conversation that you could have, that would be the first thing out of my mouth hey, tunnels to the Tower has paid off our mortgage. Honey, you don't have to worry. You can go back to. You can go back to heaven and have fun and know what she knows. My wife was kate hendricks.

Speaker 6:

Thomas never forget and, as you said, we give 95 cents every dollar away to our programs how on earth do you do that?

Speaker 5:

I don't know. Know of any program and I've looked into this. I can't find one that even comes near so and one. I asked you a question. I'm going to let you answer it, I promise. I think the other thing to know is that when you are giving to organizations, then just check out how much of the money, how much of the dollar, actually goes to where your intended giving is going, because I know there are veterans programs out there and it's great that we have, you know, lots of veterans programs. Some of them it's quite common to see 50 or 60 percent. You're at 95.1 percent. That's amazing. How on earth do you do that?

Speaker 6:

Very low overhead. And again it all goes back to our programs. We've been very blessed with our $11 a month campaign and our corporate sponsorship to have really hyperbolic growth in the last few years. And we have three premier, four premier programs. Now Our smart home program we construct and design specially adapted smart homes for injured veterans. It's all controlled by an iPad the lights, the kitchens, the bathrooms, everything to make it you know, living independent much more easy for our catastrophically injured veterans.

Speaker 6:

Our Gold Star families, veterans that don't return home from war. They're killed in the line of duty. We take care of their families with small children, provide them with new homes, pay off their mortgages. And our fallen first responder families, which are police officers, firefighters and EMT workers that are killed in the line of duty. We pay off their mortgages and provide new homes for their families. And now our homeless veteran program.

Speaker 6:

We've committed to eradicating homelessness amongst veterans nationwide. That's the program that I'm heading up and what we're doing and what we've done in a very tight timeframe is basically developed a two and now a three-pronged model. We're going to the places throughout the nation where the rates of homelessness are highest large metro areas throughout the nation and we're acquiring hotels, hospitality properties as well as raw land, and we're renovating the existing hotels, gut, renovating them into permanent housing, supportive housing locations for our veterans, and we're also building new villages of permanent supportive housing for our veterans. We have over 1,500 units under some stage of development now in 15 cities across the nation. Many, many, many more to come.

Speaker 5:

I was putting Gavin on the spot there. I'd like to take you through the various programs on here, and you can find this by going to t2torg. That's t2torg. Once you're on there, click on Programs and then go down to Homeless Veteran Program or, of course, any of the others you're interested in. There's a tab at the top on the menu smart home program we talked about that one fallen first responder home program, gold star family home program, homeless veteran program. That's the one we're on right now. So here we are.

Speaker 5:

In houston, texas, the tunnel to towers foundation has completed a full scalescale conversion of a former hotel in Houston, texas, into a high-end, affordable apartment complex which now provides permanent and transitional housing to 131 veterans in the greater Houston area. The property is equipped with a comprehensive service center on the first floor offering veterans a litany of needed supportive services provided by US vets. That's amazing. And we go down to Atlanta, georgia, and you can see pictures of these, along with virtual tours on their website at t2torg. In Atlanta, georgia, the Tenor Towers Foundation has broken ground on our Atlanta Veterans Village. We're currently in the process of renovating a 103-room home in Atlanta, which will provide permanent housing and supportive services to approximately 92 veterans in the greater Atlanta area. And then we have Bradadenton, florida. The tunnel, tunnel to and bradenton, of course, was just hit as well in um, the one that came through after helene, and they took a direct hit. The name's escaping me. Right now, the 10 altar towers foundation has broken ground on our bradenton veterans village. We're currently in the process of constructing an 85-room apartment complex and comprehensive supportive service center. A community of 35 comfort homes will complement the village, providing additional permanent housing to veterans.

Speaker 5:

And then we've got Memphis, tennessee TTT has broken ground on our Memphis Veterans Village. They're really busy right now, obviously, currently in the process of converting a former 120-unit hotel in Memphis into permanent housing with comprehensive support services for approximately 105 veterans. These are not small complexes as well, you're noticing. Then we have Bayville, new Jersey. The T2T Foundation has been approved to construct a veterans village encompassing a 98-unit apartment complex and comprehensive supports service centre, complemented by 24 comfort homes. So that's a 98-unit apartment plus 24 comfort homes. And then up to Harrisburg, pennsylvania. I feel like I'm taking you all over the country here today. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation is assessing an 8.5-acre tract of waterfront property where we intend to construct a veterans village encompassing a 64-unit apartment complex and comprehensive support services. There we go again. Obviously common to have those support services in place throughout anything. Tunnel to Towers does, complemented by 20 comfort homes. Las Vegas, nevada. The Tunnel to Towers does, complemented by 20 comfort homes. Las Vegas, nevada. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation currently under contract for a five-acre parcel of land adjacent to the VA Southern Nevada Healthcare Complex and is in the process of submitting plans to the City of North Las Vegas. Come on, city of North Las Vegas, let's get those through as soon as we can.

Speaker 5:

Denver, colorado, has broken ground on our Denver Veterans Village. We've purchased property in downtown Denver which is intended to convert into permanent housing with comprehensive support services for over 100 veterans. These are massive units, guys. Buffalo, new York, broken ground on our Buffalo Veterans Village. We're currently in the process of constructing a veterans village encompassing a 94-unit apartment complex and comprehensive support service center in Chittawaga. I so hope I said that correctly.

Speaker 5:

Detroit, michigan, broken ground on our Detroit Veterans Village, currently in the process of converting a hotel in Southfield, michigan, into permanent housing. Of course, with that comprehensive supportive service center for 88 veterans, imagine all the jobs this is providing. Not just obviously amazing permanent housing for the veterans. This is creating a massive amount of jobs. Imagine just construction alone, the kind of jobs that's creating and the management of these places. You're basically running a hotel for 88 people or 100 people or 200 people. That obviously takes some management, whatever kind of form that comes in, so adding even more jobs there.

Speaker 5:

Then we've got North Charleston, south Carolina. This is very close to us in Asheville, we're only about four hours away, broken ground on the North Charleston Veterans Village, purchased a 90 unit hotel in North Charleston which is intended to convert into a permanent housing complex, a comprehensive supportive service centre. Again, if you've just tuned in, we are talking about Tunnel to Towers today, going through all of those programmes. We're also talking to Gavin, who's the VP of the Homeless Veterans Program. He's heading it up for Tunnel to Towers. We're going through all the projects right now before we go back to Gavin.

Speaker 5:

And then we've got Long Island, new York, currently assessing a property in Nassau County where it's intended to construct a veterans village encompassing a 42-unit complex. It's amazing and they're targeting actually Gavin is the land purchaser to look for all of these. Here are the targets. I'm going to go through these quickly because there's a lot on here Jacksonville, florida, orlando, florida, brooklyn, new York, sacramento, california, cleveland, ohio, bronx, new York, west Palm Beach, florida, puerto Rico, jackson, new Jersey, portland, oregon, charlotte, north Carolina, kansas City, missouri, seattle, washington, dallas and Austin in Texas. And then there's also affiliate projects as well. In Riverside, california, tunnel to Towers has provided funds to the US Vets March Veterans Village located on March Air Force Base in Riverside, california. In Phoenix, it's provided grants, funds and support to US vets to renovate a 150-room hotel in Phoenix, arizona, which will serve as a permanent supportive housing project for hundreds of veterans in the Phoenix area.

Speaker 5:

West LA in California. With over 11,000 homeless veterans in California let that number sink in Eleven thousand the T2T Foundation realized the efforts would need to be substantial enough to meet the current problem In California. Tenor Towers provided extensive grant funds for a 388 acre property in West Los Angeles, california, which is being transformed into a community campus for over 3,000 veterans. Building 207, opened in February 23, provides housing and services to 67 veterans. We might only be making a dent a little piece at the time. However, clearly I'm not reading this from the website. This is Rose speaking here. Clearly it's going to be step by step by step, as all of this is built.

Speaker 5:

The full campus with almost a dozen other buildings is to provide over 1,700 housing units for veterans. In California, spearheaded by the Department of Veteran Affairs, is to provide over 715 housing units for the campus. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. And back to that massive number again in California 11,000 homeless veterans just crazy. In Phoenix, arizona, provided grant funds to renovate 150 room hotel in Phoenix. In Austin, texas, provided grant funds to provide 10 comfort homes to veterans on mobile loaves and fishes property in Austin Texas, as well as supportive services for 32 veterans. Let's not forget about those supportive services there. That is amazing.

Speaker 10:

Home, Home, Something to be proud of. Home supportive services there. That is amazing. I happened to step in the wrong spot and took a sniper round into the chest. This is the day that I was hit. I lost my legs almost immediately. I lost my left hand and both my legs above the knee. My arm was gone so I closed my eyes, thinking to myself if I just keep breathing, I will make it home to my wife. I just wanted to serve my country. Every day I'm still adapting to this new life. It was hard having everybody change their lifestyle to take care of me. A typical home doesn't feel like home to me. They have to carry my chair up the stairs.

Speaker 1:

The hardest thing in my life is to have to call and yell for my children to help pick me off the bathroom floor.

Speaker 3:

Where do you go when home isn't home anymore? This is Mark Wahlberg.

Speaker 6:

There are over 1,000 families that need our help.

Speaker 1:

Tunnel to Talents is honoring those heroes that risked their lives by providing them with mortgage-free homes.

Speaker 10:

Yes, I'm on the waiting list to have a home built. It's gonna be amazing, this smart home technology. It makes my life a whole lot easier and it's 100% accessible. It's built to fit my needs. For me to gain independence again would be just amazing Be able to just take care of myself as an individual. This home will allow me to be self-sufficient. It'll help me live my life.

Speaker 1:

It gives me back some of my dignity, who I used to be. There is a waiting list for houses.

Speaker 10:

This is the waiting list. There are a lot of people on that list. Yeah, there are a lot of guys like me out there, maybe too many. Gives you back your dignity, your pride, your self-perseverance. Thanks to Tom of the Towers, I'm going to have all these freedoms given back to me. Personal Safety, dignity, family Independence, confidence. It's an American dream, isn't it Home?

Speaker 1:

I'd like to ask you to contribute $11 a month to support their efforts. Please visit tomofthetowerorg.

Speaker 6:

Any and every veteran that may be struggling, especially ones with small children or families. We have an internal team where they can call us from anywhere in the nation and we'll provide them housing assistance to get housed in their area.

Speaker 5:

I didn't know that. How do people access that if they'd like to get to that link?

Speaker 6:

You can go to T2Torg and do research on our program and we have our inquiry form there, our application form right there. We receive hundreds and hundreds every single month from a litany of sources and we're providing a lot of veterans and their families with the assistance they need and with the access to supportive services they need. It's not enough to just provide a house. You have to really address the root causes of why veterans are struggling with homelessness.

Speaker 11:

My name is Nicole Carduse and my husband is Michael J Carduse. He served in the Air Force for 23 years. I honestly grew up with Mike. We went on a date and we got married three months after that. We have six kids. They all remind me of him in different ways, actually, and it's kind of beautiful. Mike and I were living on Andrews Air Force Base when 9-11 happened. Honestly, that day changed the rest of our lives. From then on, our whole world became very real. Mike was deployed twice in 2004 to Qatar and then he was in Afghanistan. I'm very proud of Mike. He did what he was called to do. It was the man he was. Mike came to me in March of 2022 and said can you feel these lymph nodes? And they were swollen. On Thursday he got a phone call that said you have lymphoma, you're going to need chemo. It's treatable. He died. The next morning After Mike died, they did an autopsy and his death certificate reads like an oncology textbook.

Speaker 11:

It has all been contributed to him. Being in Afghanistan and the burn pits of Afghanistan, my biggest fears were how do I financially support the kids, how do I emotionally support the kids and how am I going to just keep our life intact? To just keep our life intact. And then Tunnel to Towers paid off my mortgage on Veterans Day of 2023. I felt like I was seen, I was being taken care of, that. My service mattered to somebody. It's life-changing Tunnel to Towers Foundation. It's life changing Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

Speaker 5:

Let us do good. Well, I'd be amiss and I'll get into all kinds of trouble because, although we're broadcast nationwide, we're out of Asheville, north Carolina, which is a place called Buncombe County. I mean, you've seen it on the news recently, probably because of Helene, and before Helene we had, 40% of our homeless were veterans. Veterans are very dear to my heart. I know I've got a funny accent, but my family back in the UK served, and once you serve it doesn't matter where you're serving, right. So yeah, I'd be amiss if I didn't say we need you in Asheville.

Speaker 6:

Well. So it's funny. You say that I'm actually finalizing a deal now in Charlotte, north Carolina, for a permanent supportive housing program we're going to create there for veterans. But we have provided, I think, over 70 response trailers to Asheville to address what happened there. We've also sent care packages, things like that. We don't advertise that too much but you know disaster relief. But we have helped Asheville and through, you know, the Homeless Veteran Program with their veterans that are struggling. We're working with the crews there and the organizations there that are sort of the boots on the ground to provide assistance. You know how they need it. So we, especially with the wildfires in Los Angeles, we provided a tremendous amount of assistance out in Los Angeles because you know we're New York based but we want to be able to help out when these things happen.

Speaker 5:

Right, right. I love the fact that you're getting over on the West Coast, because there seems to be a West Coast East Coast divide in who knows about Ternota Towers. For some reason, everybody on the East Coast seems to know about you, whereas on the West Coast it's like's like. No, I haven't come across them yet.

Speaker 6:

So yeah, and this program is really going to uh, you know, help with that. We have uh numerous uh veterans villages and programs that we're doing through the uh on the west coast. Uh, we're contributors of the west la rebuild, which will provide housing for over 3 000 veterans once completed the end of this year, as well as riversideide. California, denver, colorado, las Vegas. We have a lot of West Coast projects that we're working on now Phoenix, arizona we're going to be in Tucson, houston, texas. We're trying to hit these markets where people are really struggling.

Speaker 5:

Sure sure. How did you get into this, Gavin? Did you serve, or what drew you to it?

Speaker 6:

No, I was in the ROTC when I was a kid, but I never served. I was a real estate attorney, a broker, and the foundation was looking for someone to purchase land. So I said that sounds interesting to give back, and I was the 30th hire. Now we have over 360 employees Wow, and 60 employees. I'm heading this program up and it's been nothing. But the platform that has been created by the Siller family and the foundation to be able to give back and help is unparalleled, because we aren't reliant on any sort of government funding. We're reliant on the generosity of the American public. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Americans give $11 a month to our foundation, and so we're able to be very, very nimble and very responsive to the needs. When something happens. If a police officer, firefighter, if a veteran gets killed in the line of duty, their mortgage is paid off before they're in the ground.

Speaker 9:

My name is Jamie Spinella. I work for Northrop Grumman Corporation. I'm an international trade science analyst. I have a son named Rocco, who's eight years old. He is a bundle of energy. He always has a smile on his face. He is one of the most pleasant children you will ever meet. He is just a joy. He's wonderful. My husband's name is Jeffrey Thomas Rizzo. He was a firefighter paramedic with Loudoun County Fire and Rescue in Virginia.

Speaker 9:

Jeff was bartending at a local restaurant and I would go there from time to time and we just hit it off. He was charming and funny and it just went from there. One of the first things he said to me when we met was I want to run into burning buildings. He was determined determined to be a part of a fire department. It was his passion, he loved it and he made it happen. Jeff had just returned home from working a three-day shift he often worked a lot of overtime, so it wasn't uncommon and he went upstairs. I did what I normally did. I took care of Rocco and put him to bed. We read stories and I waited until he fell asleep and walked out of Rocco's room and I found Jeff unresponsive. It didn't seem real. It seemed surreal, it seemed. I called 911. They had me doing chest compressions until they arrived, he just he wasn't responding. He wasn't, there was nothing. You have this, it just it didn't seem real. It still doesn't. It feels like he's going to walk through that door any day.

Speaker 9:

About a month later, I received a call from the union vice president. I received a call from the union vice president and he told me that tunnel to towers would like to help us with paying the mortgage. And that day I received a call from the organization and it was beyond it. Really, there, no explanation, there's no, there's no good way to describe that feeling when your whole world has been turned absolutely upside down. Life, as you know, it, is completely different and it'll never be the same. And and all of the thoughts are how am I going to do this, how am I going to do this, how am I going to take care of our son and continue to try and live our lives? It just, but having that support from the organization, having that, it's just's, it's just a wave of relief. You can focus on your lives and not have to worry about, about just trying to survive. Tunnel to towers, their response and their support has made it possible for us to live, to live and not have to worry about day to day, not have to worry about trying to survive. Now we can focus on living, I can focus on and giving him the life that he deserves.

Speaker 9:

Rocco is nonverbal. Rocco will often point to pictures of his father and he will point, or he will grab my hand and point and he'll turn around and look at me and smile and usually in those cases he's learning on an assistive technology, so he's learning on a device. When you point to things, that's what you want or that's what you receive. I can't give him his father, so it's heartbreaking, it's bittersweet. I love that he still smiles when he sees his dad, but the fact that I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't do any more than that, it's bittersweet.

Speaker 9:

The tattoo was um done in honor of Jeff, um. It is the thin red line flag and the three birds represent Jeff, rocco and myself. The writing came from my last birthday card from Jeff and that is his handwriting. It's just something that makes me smile and keeps him with me on the left arm, closest to the heart. What would you want to say to your husband? I'd want to tell him I love him. I want to tell him not to worry about us and we miss him every day. We miss him and I'm still waiting. I just, I think I'll always be waiting for him to walk through that door. Just such a personality, such a such it, just, I, just, I, just I don't. My head and my heart can't accept it. I'm sure he would be overjoyed at all of the support that we've received, from Tunnel to Towers, from the department. I would hope he would be proud of us.

Speaker 6:

Veteran comes home. Smart home is double amputee, triple amputee, quadruple amputee. That's how our smart home program began. The first quadruple amputee was a Staten Island resident, brandon Morocco, and we built him a home. We're very responsive and we're not tied up by so much red tape, and so that really resonates with the American public the results we're able to generate.

Speaker 5:

And there's lots of different ways we can help and we're always trying to come up with creative ways to help. And I know you prefer everybody prefers cash, right, obviously, and I know that you have a car program and a land program as well, but we want things that will turn into money faster, really right. That's really where we'd want to be looking, even though you have those programs. So, and obviously you can go on and quite easily donate. If you're listening today and want to get out your checkbook or your credit card, go on, it's $11 a month. We also have a lot of real estate agents listening and we run various niche. Everybody knows, because you've all been listening to me for over a decade now we run a lot of niche cash programs and in those cash programs, believe it or not, we find through our funding partners that sometimes people just say you know what? Well, let me step back for a second. So, most cash programs you're lucky if you get 50, 60% of the value of the home. You know that as well. Gavin, you're a broker. That's a normal cash program, our cash program. Two thirds of sellers make more than with a conventional sale. Of course we do conventional sales too. I had an old client call me a previous client, not an old client call me last week and say, well, do you still do conventional listings? I'm like, oh yes, absolutely. We do conventional listings, don't worry about that. However, we also handle these cash offers where two thirds of our sellers are making more than they make with a conventional listing. And sometimes they say you know, whatever, I'll just take the cause. You get a first check and then we go in and we renovate and we do our HGVT magic, put anything right that comes up on the inspection. So it's a certified pre-owned home, like a certified pre-owned car, and then you get a second check. But we're having people come to us no-transcript it and at the same time take that money and give it to you when you know, when somebody just doesn't want to go through the hassle of it. That would be amazing. So we're training agents in that big chunk that can be given.

Speaker 5:

Also, I used to work with a company called Homes for Heroes. I was their number one agent in the country and given back in my tiny little team my amazing team has given back almost a million dollars. We're trying to trip over that million dollar mark and we're in a little town in Asheville, north Carolina. So the very cool thing there is it taught me how to market it for many years, so now it's very easy whereby we can sign up our clients as we go. We can you know when we're doing 100, 200, 300 deals a year. That's quite a lot of people signing up, so there's nothing stopping us as agents doing that.

Speaker 5:

$11 a month, it's way less than many of the other agent programs where we give up 30% of our commission. You know that's just how agents work. I know if you're not listening, if you're out there and you're not an agent, you don't understand that we give up 20, 30% of our commission to these programs usually, whereas with this we're giving it. We're signing up somebody for eleven dollars. We can afford that because we can do it out of the commission. So I think that's a good model. Have you got any other ideas, gavin, for agents, what we can do and how we can help?

Speaker 6:

No, I mean that that that is incredible what you're doing so far. We appreciate it. You definitely get to see the fruits of your donation and the fruits of your labor when we're able to provide a home or pay off the mortgage. There's obviously large tax benefits to doing so to homeowners, which we've been working very creatively with, as well as I purchased these large-scale commercial properties, which we've been working very creatively with, as well, as I purchased these large scale commercial properties, um, but, uh, I am familiar with, uh, homes for heroes as well.

Speaker 6:

Um, and just spreading awareness is really, uh, you know, more than enough. Sure, sure, because, listen, there's, there's a thousand places to put your money and there's a lot of good organizations that do, uh, you know, a lot of good work. Um, but people want to feel that they are making a difference and people want to feel that the money that they are giving is going to a cause that they find worthy. So we have a tremendous amount of ways where donors can earmark funds for the causes that they find near and dear to their heart. It could be a police officer or a firefighter that got killed in their town, or it could be a village in Denver that we're creating. It could be a smart home recipient that they knew personally. So we provide the ability of donors to be able to tailor their donation to the causes that are near and dear to their heart.

Speaker 5:

That is amazing. So you've got lots of different channels. I didn't realize that either, so you're teaching me a lot today. Thank you so much. And this isn't about I mean. I want to do what we can do in Western North Carolina. However, we've got an amazing network of thousands of agents at Listing Royalty. We just launched the app. The app is live. Guys. It's the first week. I'm announcing it because it's that new and this is a big network of agents that once we actually educate them through this and Gavin, I think what I'm going to do is take today's radio show and we've got our beautiful mugshots on there as well, and I'm going to get you on the app, if I can have your permission to do that, for the agents to see it.

Speaker 6:

That's no problem. And, rowena, as you're talking here, a light bulb went off in my head Our program, my homeless veteran program. We, through our case management network, where any, any and every veteran, no matter where you are Arkansas, asheville, los Angeles, anywhere, puerto Rico, guam we do, you could call our foundation and we provide you funds to get into an accommodation that suits you and your family's needs. You're sleeping in a van with three children in North Carolina. You call us. We're able to provide the funds first month's rent, second month's rent, security deposits, broker's fees, applications fees. They get them housed in their area and then we work with over a thousand organizations. If they need an attorney in Asheville, north Carolina, or they need a PTSD or mental health clinic in North Dakota, or they need a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Idaho, or they need an employment opportunity in Florida, you have this interconnected network of webs that can fill in where we can't be.

Speaker 6:

But as you talk about this real estate network, right, we have an entire housing team, but sometimes we struggle to pair a veteran and their family with a good, long-term housing solution. So we work with realtors and real estate agents all over the nation to facilitate that right. We have a John Smith in this location and he has a pet and this and that, whatever. And working with the real estate agents that are more in tune with the sub markets right where they live is very advantageous to us. So I would love to explore that more and get some more visibility as to our program and how realtors can potentially get involved, because it would be very invaluable for us to know that we can pick up the phone and say you know, we have a case here in Bradenton, florida. We need someone with real knowledge in that area for Section 8 or HUD-VASH or whatever it is.

Speaker 5:

Yes, it sounds like you can really get me alongside the right person. So my skill set is really my love is training and coaching, and that's where the app came from. It's all about training and coaching. That's why you're here today, so we can bring it to all those other agents and they can learn more about what you're doing. But what I'll offer to do I'll just throw it in the ring there if it's of any help at all is I'll develop a program for Homes for Heroes that sits behind this. That's not paid and any agents can take it to kind of get certified and learn what your programs are.

Speaker 5:

And the great thing about an app and I know you oldies who are listening are going oh, I don't use apps. You use all kinds of apps and I've seen you and I'm not 19 either it's fun, it's full of videos and all kinds of widgets on there and it's a bit more fun than a website. But you can do it on a desktop too. For those agents who you know we're getting up there a little bit and they just prefer a desktop, that's fine as well. But I'll develop out an entire if that would help, an entire course for you. You probably got presentations already for agents. You know, teaching them about everything you do and I'm guessing, with Tenor to Towers, everything you do is going to be different in three months time, because you're growing at an incredible rate and so many of you are helping and jumping into lead up new programs like you're doing. Gavin, thank you so much.

Speaker 6:

Well, thank you, but it's not just us doing it alone. It takes a village, as you know, and everyone marching to the same beat, sharing best practices, sharing resources, sharing information, sharing contacts. And we've made a promise the Tunnel to Towers Foundation has made a promise that if you go to work, you go to war, you put on a uniform and you don't return home that day and you have small children, we will provide you a mortgage free home.

Speaker 5:

So that's the commitment we've made to America, and only with the generosity of America are we able to do that. So we appreciate it. Well, I see that and I also. You know I'm watching those ads, I'm watching those videos. I encourage everybody to look at T2Torg and also go have a look on YouTube, but take your box of tissues, because it's some hard watching. You will learn a lot. You'll learn about a lot about what they're doing. I don't think there's that much around your division there yet. Is there Gavin? Or can you see it out there already?

Speaker 6:

No, there is. If you go on the website, you can take virtual tours. You see all of our renderings that we're building. You know all the permanent supportive housing locations we're going to be building. It's going to be fitted out with a full suite of supportive services for everything a veteran needs entitlements, assistance, employment assistance, behavioral health, case management, legal advocacy. We work with other organizations in the same space for pet therapy and art therapy and music therapy and cooking classes. It's a really comprehensive village that we're creating in these large metro areas that is fully therapeutic and is permanent housing for veterans for whatever they need. So there's going to be many, many coming online this year and next year. We have our Houston Veterans Village, which opened last year. But stay tuned because there's going to be a lot of good updates on our program.

Speaker 5:

It's amazing and I love that you're bringing that village together, because I know that when veterans come home, the first thing they need is that community, because they've lost that community. Isn't that one of the key factors where you're stepping back in as a civilian and it's just so hard? So having that village where you've got people of a common mindset around that have you know, seen some, some terrible things that the average person walking around hasn't seen? Must make it so much easier. So thank you from all of us. You're doing just an amazing job. Anything I can do to help? You've got my number. Thank you so much.

Speaker 6:

Rowena, we appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

This has been the Plain English Real Estate Show with Rowena Patton. Visit Rowena and post your questions at radioashvillecom or call her at 828-210-1648.

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Rowena Patton, NC, FL, DC, CA

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