Skip to footer

WWII veteran buys his home back in time for holidays with stranger's help

The US Navy veteran never wanted to leave his house, but he was forcibly evicted after he could not make his loan payments.

A stranger rallied a community around a World War II veteran who was evicted from his home to help him buy it back.

Johnnie H. Hodges Sr., 90, lost his home of 60 years in Buffalo, New York after being behind in his mortgage payments for years.

The Buffalo News published a story about Mr. Hodges’s situation in July when authorities physically removed him from his home after a local bank foreclosed on the house.

According to the paper, Hodge missed making his monthly mortgage payments while caring for his wife, Flora, who was ill and passed away last year.

Since then, dozens of people have been moved to help, some offering money and others shelter.  

Despite not knowing Hodges, businessman Greg Elwood of Williamsville, New York, stepped in and established a GoFundMe online account to raise funds for the Navy veteran. To Mr. Elwood's surprise, more than $110,000 was collected in five months.

"Our original goal was $50,000, that was the amount that Robin needed to purchase the home back," Elwood told ABC News. "It's just a wonderful feeling to know that he'll be back in that home to be able to celebrate the holidays with the family. He has a lot of memories in that home. It's very clear he was close with his late wife Flora and I just feel good knowing that he's at peace."

Hodges lived in a senior citizen complex in Cheektowaga after his eviction and was able to buy back his home last month.

"I'm very happy to be back ... and spend Christmas with my family in my home," Hodges told the station. “There's nothing like being with your family. This is a beautiful home I have and it really is a pleasure to be here."

Despite falling on hard times, Hodges said the outpouring kindness of the community has renewed his happiness.

"I feel really good about the donations that everybody gave," Hodges said, according to ABC News. "I'm always happy when I'm in my home. I walk around, sit on my porch when it’s a nice day and I enjoy the nice weather and my friends will come by ... there's no place like home."

A report released in 2014 by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found there were about 50,000 homeless veterans in the United States. In January, The Christian Science Monitor reported New Orleans became the first major city to house all of its homeless veterans. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to WWII veteran buys his home back in time for holidays with stranger's help
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/1204/WWII-veteran-buys-his-home-back-in-time-for-holidays-with-stranger-s-help
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe