Assisted-living center for wounded combat veterans gets OK from Omaha City Council
U.S. troops wounded in combat who lack the family or financial support to care for themselves at home could soon have another housing option.
The Omaha City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved zoning changes and early plans for the Dunham House, a 40-acre military-focused assisted-living complex.
The first step in the project calls for building an administration building and two housing units near 120th Street and Rainwood Road in northwest Omaha.
Those buildings would house 22 to 24 combat veterans who suffered traumatic brain injuries, with plans to build more housing units and serve as many as 125 veterans.
The veterans served might need help buttoning a shirt, using the bathroom or taking a bath, but could live independently with a little help, organizers said. These veterans don’t need the additional medical support of a nursing home.
Starting construction is contingent on continued private fundraising by Wounded Warriors Family Support, an Omaha-based nonprofit started by retired Marine Col. John Folsom.
His local group raises money nationally to support the families of troops wounded or killed in combat. The group had raised more than $2 million, Folsom said.
It needs to raise about $11 million to make the project a reality. Tuesday’s 7-0 vote to shift future industrial land to residential use was a key step, Folsom said.
Having the zoning and plat approved should help Wounded Warriors Family Support secure more support from donors, Folsom and former Omaha Mayor Hal Daub said.
“This now really paves the way for our efforts to raise money for the first buildings,” Daub said.
City Council members Aimee Melton, Brinker Harding and Rich Pahls praised organizers for the nature of the project and the support it has garnered.
Melton said she heard about the project from her son, whose school wrote letters of support for Wounded Warriors Family Support that the group used to raise funds.
Dunham House, if it raises the necessary funds, plans an admissions committee to weigh the needs of applicants with the services it offers.
Wounded Warriors Family Support Inc. bought 80 acres of land at the rural northwest Omaha site for $1 million in January. The 40 acres on the north end of the site will house veterans.
Folsom said his group has not decided what to do with the southern 40 acres but said it might work with someone to turn the land into a nature preserve.
“If we can get Omaha involved, we’re in the center of the country,” Folsom said. “We can attract people from all over, nationally.”
He said he hopes to start construction “as soon as possible.”
Aaron Sanderford
Aaron covers political news for The World-Herald.
Follow him on Twitter @asanderford
402-444-1135
A Family on a Mission: Care center for Wounded Warriors could come to Omaha
OMAHA, NE - WOWT 6 - A family is making it their mission to help build a home for the brave in their neighborhood.
The home would help wounded warriors, specifically those with a brain and spinal cord injuries. There is just one hurdle - the land isn't zoned properly.
"There are 80 acres right here that is zoned as agriculture. The wish is to rezone it to residential so w can build this house for the wounded warriors," said Heather Goertz.
Right now the project is moving slowly because Goertz says the Planning Commission has slotted the piece of land for industrial use in the distant future.
The facility would cost around $10 million dollars and would be close enough to Omaha for medical facilities and other support.
"We don't want them to live out their lives in a long-term care assisted facility where they feel like they are the odd man out. We would like for them to have a place they can call home," said Goertz.
Wounded Warriors Family Support would build and operate the 24 bedroom facility. They would like to have it opened by Christmas of 2020.
Omaha nonprofit works to create care facility for veterans with brain injuries
OMAHA, NE. - FOX 42 KPTM - A new hospital dedicated to helping veterans is setting down roots in Omaha. The Dunham House will work exclusively with veterans who have been injured in combat.
Within the next year Wounded Warrior Family Support (WWFS) hopes to break ground, transforming a plot of land in rural Douglas County into a world class hospital to treat veterans that suffer from spinal cord and brain injuries sustained in combat.
Wounded Warriors Family Support President, and retired USMC Colonel John Folsom got the idea to create the care facility after meeting a young soldier at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. The soldier had suffered a brain injury when an improvised explosive device (IED) was set off near his head in Iraq.
“The theme to recognize that service and sacrifice of one's life was from John 15:13 ‘ Greater man hath no love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” Folsom said.
That scripture is guiding Folsom and his team to raise funds to create Dunham House, care facility focused on helping veterans who could otherwise not live independently on their own, due to their extreme injuries.
The hospital is named after Corporal Jason Dunham, a Marine that used his body to shield his fellow Marines from a grenade in Husaybah, Iraq in 2004. Dunham was hospitalized for 8 days before passing away at the age of 22.
The facility is designed to provide care to veterans with severe brain and spinal cord injuries sustained during combat.
“We bring in combat wounded veterans from all over the United States to come live here as long as they want,” Folsom said.
The 24 bed, 16,000 sq foot facility, will cost approximately $10 million to finish. Folsom says the hospital will provide care beyond what is offered at a veterans home.
“This facility is specifically designed for those combat wounded Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors whose parents can no longer take care of them, they have no family members who can take care of them,"Folsom said.
Folsom said the goal is to give veterans a place to age with the support they need.
“Many cases there is no rehabilitation, there is no getting back to a normal life. They will never be back to a normal life,” Folsom said. “Mild TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury] can grow into a more moderate to severe TBI as one ages.”
The facility will be built on an 80 acre plot near the intersection of Rainwood Road and 120th street.Wounded Warrior Family Support is waiting on approval from the Omaha City Council and Omaha Planning Board to rezone the property into a residential plot to allow them to begin construction.
Organizers say they hope to have the Dunham open in time for Christmas of 2020. Folsom said the WWFS has raised approximately a fourth of the funds they need to build the Dunham House.
Proposed assisted-living center for wounded veterans has a site northwest of Omaha
A nonprofit group founded by a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel has obtained a site and is marching toward city zoning approvals for a proposed assisted-living center for wounded veterans in suburban Omaha.
That constitutes a step forward for retired Col. John Folsom’s vision, but it still has a long trek ahead before becoming reality. He estimates that it will cost $11 million, and the group has about $2 million on hand, Folsom said.
The site is farm ground northwest of 120th Street and Rainwood Road. That’s about a half-mile west of the Omaha Public Safety Training Center in a mostly rural area northwest of Omaha.
Wounded Warriors Family Support, the Omaha-based nonprofit that Folsom founded to support families of U.S. troops wounded or killed in combat, proposes to build a 24-bed residential home for combat-wounded veterans who have no one in their lives capable of providing day-to-day care. It could someday house as many as 100 veterans in 10 home-like living units adjacent to an administrative building.
Folsom said it would serve people who were severely wounded in combat, including those who suffered traumatic brain injuries, an all-too-common occurrence in the United States’ wars in this century.
“These soldiers and sailors would come from all over the States,” he said. “A lot of them are living with their parents. Mom and Dad are going to age out and not be able to take care of them anymore. ... They’re going to get dumped in a civilian assisted-living facility. We think we can do better.”
Wounded Warriors Family Support Inc. paid $1 million to purchase 80 acres of farmland from Mount Calvary Commandery #1 in January, according to Douglas County records.
Wounded Warriors hopes to build its facility on the northern half of the property. It hasn’t said what it would do with the southern 40 acres.
The organization is asking the City of Omaha to rezone the property from agricultural to residential. The city’s future land use map envisions the land as being home to industry someday, but city planners have indicated that they think it would be acceptable to change that to residential.
City planners want Wounded Warriors to submit suitable plans for building a street from Rainwood Road into its building site, widening Rainwood Road for a turn lane and creating a stub street for future development.
The street off Rainwood Road would have to be built to withstand heavy-duty vehicles because adjoining property is still planned as future industrial land.
City planners also want the organization to submit analyses of trees and any wetlands on the property. And they want the developers to coordinate with the Omaha Public Works Department on connecting to a sanitary sewer line.
Those are all standard requirements for a development in such an area. The Omaha Planning Board voted last week to postpone a vote on preliminary plans and rezoning for the site to give the organization time to work on the details.
HDR Inc. representatives have been working with city planners and are confident they will have those details worked out in time for a Planning Board vote in August, said Robert Hailey of HDR, the lead architect on the project.
Hailey, a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel, said city planning officials have reacted positively to the design. As for the proposed housing arrangement, Hailey said it is the type of footprint the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs wants to move toward: smaller, family-like living quarters, or pods, around a larger common building.
Meanwhile, Folsom is hoping that the idea catches on with donors.
“I think it will, if somehow we can get national attention on this,” he said. “I don’t believe that anybody in America is doing what we’re proposing to do.”
Colonel Folsom discusses the mission of the Dunham House and Zoning Issues with KMTV’s Alex McLoon
OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — A Nebraska veteran support group which offers care-giving services to wounded veterans wants to build a facility in Omaha.
The organization says the building near Bennington would be a serene place for veterans and close to other care facilities in the area. Before they can build, the group not only needs $10 million, but permission from the city.
Colonel John Folsom founded Wounded Warriors Family Support, which helps injured veterans and their families with care-giving services. The organization hopes to build a care center to assist injured service members dealing with spine and brain injuries. Colonel Folsom's inspiration to help others came after meeting an injured soldier and his family about ten years ago.
"What struck me was that his mother would have to take care of him," Colonel Folsom said.
Then came a realization.
"What will happen to this young soldier and others like him who are being cared for by their parents when they're no longer able to take of themselves because of their health problems?"
Wounded Warriors Family Support has plans to build a combat wounded veterans residence. They're on their way to raising $10 million for the facility, but first need the city to rezone their piece of land.
The 80-acre site off 120th and Rainwood Road near Bennington is where the organization is looking to build the 24 bedroom facility. It's a bean field now, but Colonel Folsom says it will soon be a place veterans from around the country can seek day-to-day living assistance.
Colonel Folsom is confident city officials will rezone the land.
"One-hundred percent. It's the right thing to do," he said.
The namesake for what will be called the Dunham House comes from the late Corporal Jason Dunham. He was 22 when he covered a grenade that detonated in Iraq. Dunham was on life support for eight days.
Colonel Folsom never met Dunham, but says the marine's life, sacrifice and service will live on through this facility.
"I'm quite sure the city planning board will see the value of what we're doing and understand the importance and agree to rezone it residential."
A representative with the city planning department couldn't be reached Tuesday. If the land is not rezoned, Colonel Folsom and Wounded Warriors Family Support plans to approach city council.
By: Alex McLoon
Deb & Dan Dunham with Colonel Folsom & David Webb discuss the Dunham House.
Deb & Dan share with us their son's life and who he was. The Dunham House is named in honor of Jason Dunham. The mission and goals are discussed also.
This is a great opportunity to hear directly from Jason's parents, get to know who they are and have them share their experience & emotions with us.
Dunham House Site Plan Concept Image
HDR has release initial site plans for the Duhnam House. The ideas on access, layout, structures are starting to take form. Click below to see the high-resolution images.
Colonel Folsom discusses the mission of the Dunham House with KETV's Chinh Doan
An Omaha group is raising money to help heroes coming home with severe injuries.
The non-profit has started fundraising with the goal of building a $10 million long-term care center in the metro for veterans.
In the 80 acres of corn stubble along Rainwood Road in Douglas County, an idea is growing to help our wounded heroes.
“This has been a horrific war and TBI, traumatic brain injury, has been a signature wound of this war with the IEDs and severe amputations and spinal injuries,” said retired Marine Corps Col. John Folsom.
Folsom is the president of Wounded Warriors Family Support, a non-profit he founded in Omaha.
He told KETV NewsWatch 7 his group believes the location in the middle of the country is convenient for veterans and their visitors.
Plans for phase one include a 16,000 sq. ft. facility with 20 beds.
It'll be called Dunham House, named after Corp. Jason Dunham, who died in 2004.
Folsom said Dunham deliberately covered an enemy grenade to save nearby marines.
“We're going to honor Jason and his memory with the idea that I very much believe: That no greater love hath a man or a woman for his or her friends than to lay down one's life,” said Folsom.
Folsom shared the idea was planted years ago, when he saw a soldier living with traumatic brain injury.
“The thought that I had is that, ‘What's going to happen to him when his mother can no longer take care of him? Who's going to take care of this young soldier?'” asked Folsom.
The group hopes to develop the facility into a healing campus as more veterans come home with life-changing injuries.
“We have an obligation forever to take care of these veterans, and that's what we're going to do,” said Folsom.
Wounded Warriors Family Support hopes to open the first phase in December 2020.
Omaha-Based Nonprofit hopes to build residence for combat wounded vets
Omaha-based nonprofit hopes to build residence for combat-wounded vets
By Julie Anderson - World-Herald staff writer - Jan 8, 2018
Several years ago, retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. John Folsom was touring Bethesda Naval Hospital at the holidays when he encountered a young soldier who’d suffered a brain injury when an improvised explosive device detonated near his head in Iraq.
With the soldier were his sister and his mother, who cares for him.
“What never left me is, his mother is his primary caregiver,” Folsom said. “What’s going to happen to him when his mother is no longer able to care for him?”
Now Wounded Warriors Family Support, the Omaha-based national nonprofit that Folsom founded to support families of those wounded or killed in combat, has begun planning a 24-bed residential home in rural Douglas County for combat-wounded veterans who, for whatever reason, have no one in their lives capable of providing day-to-day care.
The organization has hired a project management firm and committed up to $150,000 for initial planning and preparation, to be completed by late spring. The Mount Calvary Commandery No. 1 in Papillion, an appendant Masonic body, has agreed to donate 10 acres for the facility north of Rainwood Road, near the Omaha Public Safety Training Center.
The organization hasn’t yet secured funds to construct the residence. But Hal Daub, who serves on the group’s board and on its building committee, said he’s confident that the organization will be able to raise an estimated $6 million to $10 million. That money would cover the cost of building the residence and create an endowment to guarantee ongoing operations and help cover gaps between benefits veterans bring with them and the cost of care.
“This is an exciting, unique living accommodation for a very special group of men and women who have served and sacrificed for our country right in the middle of the United States,” said Daub, a University of Nebraska regent and former Omaha mayor and Nebraska congressman.
Folsom, the organization’s president, is also confident that the money can be raised. The organization, which has a four-star rating on Charity Navigator, plans to start with foundations in Omaha, across Nebraska and nationally. Members already have had preliminary conversations with some. But ultimately, he said, they will reach out to potential donors large and small. His hope is to open by Christmas 2019. The organization has launched a website specifically for the project at dunhamhouse.org. More information about the organization is available at www.wwfs.org.
“It’s a mission that’s not being done,” Folsom said. “And I truly believe people looking to support our veterans, once they understand our vision, the generosity of the American people will come through and help us build it.”
The facility would be known as Dunham House, named in honor of Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, who served with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Dunham, a New York native and recipient of the Medal of Honor, died of injuries he suffered when he smothered a grenade with his body to protect fellow Marines on April 24, 2005, at Husaybah, Iraq.
The residence would be designed for men and women who need help with activities of daily living, such as cooking, bathing and dressing. It would not be geared toward those who need skilled nursing care, although the group is working to make provisions for those who come to need it. Residents would be divided into smaller groups in a family living setting in order to provide the kind of camaraderie that service members come to rely on while they’re on active duty.
While the group hasn’t done a formal study to determine the need for such a facility, Folsom said, members’ experience working with families across the country — providing retreats, respite care and other assistance — shows that the need is there.
Parents of such veterans are aging, siblings often are scattered across the country and divorce rates — fueled by the stresses of dealing with life-changing injuries — run high. The alternatives for combat-wounded veterans with no family support are assisted living centers and veterans’ homes, which tend to be populated by older residents and those without the same combat experiences. All four Nebraska veterans’ homes had waiting lists at the end of December.
Daub said he believes the proposed residence has the potential to be a model for more. “We think a lot of folks will want to build more right away,” he said.
Anthony “AJ” Johnson of the Mount Calvary Commandery said the Masonic group has given the wounded warriors organization an option on additional land, at a reasonable rate. It owns a total of 80 acres, currently farmland. The donation of the 10 acres is contingent on the organization raising the funds to build the residence. Johnson, a retired Air Force chief master sergeant, said he, too, believes there is a need for the residence the group has planned, and then some. “There are assisted living facilities out there ... but nothing set up strictly for the combat veterans. I think he’s meeting a need that nobody’s thought about yet.”
Daub said Omaha’s central location would provide easy access for family members to visit. The residence would include some rooms to accommodate visitors for short stays.
Daub said the group plans to work with Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital to provide assistance on an outpatient basis.
The project also offers the potential for a number of public-private partnerships, such as in-kind donations from building suppliers and trade groups, as well as veterans groups.
“We think Omahans will be pleased to know this kind of project is being developed right here,” he said.
Julie Anderson is a medical reporter for The World-Herald. She covers health care and health care trends and developments, including hospitals, research and treatments.
Follow her on Twitter @JulieAnderson41. Phone: 402-444-1066.