U.S. Army Sergeant Jonathan Acuña and his family received the keys to their new home in the Stewart Crossing neighborhood in Leander Thursday morning. The house was given as a thank you for his military service by Operation Homefront and Meritage Homes.[/caption]One day before Veterans Day, a native Texan who served in Iraq and Afghanistan walked into his new mortgage-free home in Leander with his family for the first time.
Meritage Homes and Operation Homefront presented US Army Sgt. Jonathan Acuña, his wife and his two daughters the keys to their new 1,562 square-foot, three-bedroom home in Leander’s Stewart Crossing neighborhood Thursday morning. Meritage Homes Chairman and CEO Steve Hilton said this was the company’s ninth home to give away to a veteran in the four years it has partnered with the nonprofit organization Operation Homefront.
A native of Galveston, Acuña joined the army in 2007 after he graduated from high school and was deployed to Iraq in 2008. As a military police officer, he was awarded a Purple Heart for his actions during a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq in 2009. He was also deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 and medically retired with an honorable discharge in February 2016.
The now 28-year-old and his family currently live in Killeen, and Acuña is enrolled in a diesel mechanics course in Houston. His wife, Jessica Acuña, said they and their two girls have moved six or eight times in the past 9 years, so she said they were excited to have a home.
“It means a lot to us, it really does,” Jessica Acuña said.
“No words can express what they did, I don’t even know how to thank them,” Acuña added. “It does more for us than they think.”
Hilton thanked all the trade partners that were involved with building the house. He said giving a home to a veteran mortgage-free is one of the most valuable things the company does.
“I feel like this is a way that those of us who didn’t serve in the military can pay back a little gratitude and the debt that we have to you for serving our families,” he said.
Operation Homefront Chief Operating Officer Bob Thomas said this was the 542nd home that the nonprofit has donated to a veteran. He thanked Meritage for supporting military families and said the program exists through corporate donations.
According to a press release, the Acuñas were selected for the program based on a number of qualifications, including family needs and ties to the community. Thomas said receiving the house is life-changing for veterans, and it will especially affect the Acuña children, Jlynn and Aracely.
“They get a beautiful home in a beautiful neighborhood with great schools right down the road in a great state in a great town,” he said. “It’s a great place to be.”
Acuña said his two girls have been counting down the days until they receive the house since they first found out about it four or five months ago. He said his family would try to have most of their things moved in by Thanksgiving, and they want to fully move into the house in December.
Acuña said the roadside bomb explosion left him with scars on his legs and lower back that are not obvious. He encouraged veterans who are suffering to find someone to talk to. He also said he was having trouble finding the words to thank those who gave him and his family a mortgage-free home.
“You don’t think that there’s people out there that will give mortgage-free homes to veterans, and for them to do that, it’s huge,” he said. “It makes me happy on the inside to know that there are still people [like that] out there.”
