Fisher House Foundation, its local entity Fisher House Southern California Inc. and the Veterans Administration have formed a partnership to build a residence near the VA hospital so that families can be closer to their loved ones.
“Having people’s families near them while they’re in the hospital helps the family, but it also helps the person in the hospital heal quicker,” said Steven Kuykendall, the president and CEO of Fisher House Southern California Inc. “Those are probably the most fundamental reasons why this program is so popular.”
Long Beach VA serves about 55,000 veterans, with almost 20,000 from the Iraq or Afghanistan conflicts, and has several unique aspects that draw patients from around the United States, including a spinal cord injury unit and a blind rehabilitation unit. With patients being separated from their families for long periods of time, it is an imperative goal of Fisher House to offer free, temporary housing.
Funding for the facility is raised through Fisher House and the VA and goes toward constructing, furnishing and landscaping the house. While all Fisher Houses have the same basic layout, each house is decorated accordingly to reflect the community in which it is being built.
“So, for instance [Long Beach] is going to have low stucco, and some red tile roof, and probably some palm trees in the landscaping, and the interiors are individually decorated,” Kuykendall said. “It is comparable to a very high-end residential hall, and as far as the furnishings and everything, when finished, this house is a 16-unit house, so it can handle up to 16 families per night.”
Other than building transient houses to reunite and bring families of veterans closer together, Fisher House also has two other programs to assist in reaching this goal.
Hero Miles allows people to donate their frequent-flyer miles to help transport families to hospitals and nearby Fisher Houses. Since its inception, over 50,000 airplane tickets have been donated. The second program is Hotels for Heroes, in which people donate hotel points so that, if a Fisher House is full but may have a vacancy in a couple of days, families can be lodged in a local hotel until they can move into the Fisher House.
For more information about Fisher House Southern California Inc. and the Long Beach VA Fisher House visit fisherhousesocal.org or call (562) 432-8252.
