Wounded Warrior Granted With Adaptive Housing Funds For Tucson Home

TUCSON, AZ — It's been a long road to a new Oro Valley home for Arizona Army National Guard Sergeant Marco DeLeon and his wife Diane. After incurring severe injuries from an IED explosion while on patrol in Iraq in 2009, Marco was diagnosed with a progressive spinal cord injury that by 2017 has left him barely able to support his body weight.

Coming home after that injury has been a series of trials but none so much as the two years of trying and failing to achieve funding for upgrading their home to conform to Marco's needs.

Living in a two-story townhouse, Marco needed a chair lift just to use the second floor bathroom. He was living in the downstairs of a 1,200 square foot, two story townhouse, only come upstairs to use the bathroom. Now, all that has changed.

On Friday, they were handed the keys to their new castle. Army Wounded Warriors, Meritage Homes and Representative Martha McSally were on hand at the handing over of the keys.

The DeLeon family toured their new Meritage home, along with McSally, via Facebook live tour.

Watching Marco enter his house, doors wide enough for his wheelchair to get through with ease, wider entry ways for being able to turn full circle. He demonstrated light switches, AC units are at a level to operate, and kitchen island low enough for access to "donuts" but also, as his wife, Diane, pointed out, the sink and dish washer.

"Mostly, it's the entry ways that will make a huge difference," Marco said. "That, and the handicap access, outside."

Friends and family have waited and watched Marco and Diane battle for the ability just to enjoy the basics of health and welfare. With their adaptive Meritage home, there's no need to struggle with basic dignity needs.

"I can take my own shower, reach shampoo from niches, there's a fold down shower seat, handicap rails. I no longer need my wife's help for every detail," he said, pride in his voice.

"This is our forever home. There are no more excuses," Marco laughed. "I don't know what I'm going to do with myself!"

With Marco's injuries, there are other complications in the future.

After the explosion, the back injury in Iraq, it has been the battles on the home front dealing with the government bureaucracy that have been a long struggle for this family.

"On Thanksgiving day, 2009, Iraq, an IED explosion led to a back injury," Diane said. "When he came home, he was given the opportunity to get everything on paper for the VA. He documented the injury, and it was documented and became proof of being injured in combat."

With his overseas duty in Iraq, traumatic brain injury, and concussions, due to IEDs in varying degrees and distances, multiple mild or severe concussions.

"I keep waiting for him to stabilize, and there's always something else going on. His back pain became excruciating, leading to lower lumbar surgery," Diane said. "After that, he began losing function on his left side. Two years ago, function lost in his right leg. Now, he can barely hold body weight."

In 2014, the DeLeons learned ofSpecially Adapted Housing SAH Grant,administered by the Veterans Administration. They applied and waited over a year for word.

"We spent four years first for his medical discharge, so after a year of waiting and he was getting worse, we began to lose hope," Diane said.

So what did they do?

"I called my congressman. We called Rep. McSally, and she has a full time person who is assigned to nothing but Veterans Issues," Diane said. "McSally's office called the VA, and we had the power of our congressman behind us."

Once the grant was approved, they had to figure out how to use it to suit our needs the best, and new construction was the best way to do it.

"For two years Marco tried in vain to receive a grant from the VA to modify his home to meet his handicap needs," Arizona Representative Martha McSally said over Facebook Live. "I am deeply grateful that our office was able to help."

McSally aided in securing a Special Adaptive Housing Grant that totaled $77,000 for a new home for the DeLeon family.

For Diane and Marco, the Meritage model homes had everything they were looking for: an open floor plan, a model that felt like it was close enough to suiting our needs.

"But we had to ask them if they could tweak the floor plan to meet the needs of the SAH grant, and turn it into an ADA home," she said. That meant 36-inch doors, zero profile entry ways-flush to the floor, add a french door off the master bedroom, in case of an emergency for ease of access, and in the bathroom, a roll in shower and floor plan to accommodate his roll in under-mount sink, and a wide latrine, to transfer from wheelchair to latrine.

It's a regular home.

"We signed papers in August of last year, with 6 months of behind the scenes with engineers and architects, to get approvals from the city before they started construction," she said. the Meritage Homes Capella Catalina model in Oro Valley had everything they were looking for.

"They basically took out the normal tub, as we had to have a 5-foot radius around the bathtub, so the Meritage designer decided on a standalone tub," "where the roll in shower is, there was a linen closet. So we just had to tweak it a bit."

There is always an underlying anxiety, going through combat, with Post Traumatic Stress. Anger and frustration were exacerbated by the military system, the behemoth of bureaucracy and paperwork involved.

After the battles.

"There is a calmness about Marco I haven't seen," Diane said, her voice welling with tears. "The biggest change is a sense about him that says, 'I don't have to worry. I've been fighting a battle for so many years.' The biggest change, is seeing him start to relax. To be okay."

Marco has his mobility back. He has a 2300 square foot home, access to every space, nothing off limits or difficult to reach. And that is a feeling he wants to share with other wounded veterans going through their own struggles.

"Once you go through what we've gone through, how can you not help others," she said.

The DeLeons are both active in 'Team Red White and Blue,' whose primary purpose is to help veterans transition out of the military and into life, and there are people who call Marco all the time about how.

The biggest message?

Don't give up. This isn't instant gratification, Diane said, but persistence is key.

"If you can't get in through the front door, go through a side door, or through a window. You find a way to get what you need," she said. "Marco is so excited to have his mobility and independence back again. He's excited to get back to independence again. It's going to be good. It's going to be really good."

Courtesy Photos