Saturday, June 25, 2011

Georgia neighborhood blocks disabled vet's planned home

From 11 Alive TV news:

EVANS, Ga. -- Construction of a specially adapted home for a disabled veteran and his family has been blocked by a neighborhood property owners' association, which says the 2,700-square-foot design is too small.

A group called Homes for Our Troops worked with the Knob Hill Property Owners Association for about a year planning the home for Sgt. 1st Class Sean Gittens (pictured). The group has helped build over 100 homes for severly injured veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Gittens' wife, Sharon Gittens, said her husband was injured by an improvised explosive device in Iraq about three years ago and later had a stroke.

"Shockingly, it appears that the Knob Hill community has decided it does not want to welcome SFC Gittens and his family, as we were previously told," Homes for Our Troops Founder John Gonsalves said in a statement.

Association member Tom Rogers said Homes for Our Troops did not have written approval from the association's architectural review board. The group gave conditional approval for the house but rescinded it on grounds that houses in the neighborhood are 5,000
square feet or more.

Construction was supposed to begin June 24.