A nationwide network of group homes gives veterans and their families a place to stay when they need it most Maureen Crabbe calls Fisher House a ?well-known secret,? one that helped her family during a crisis.
Like many military moms, Crabbe found herself at the Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, in the midst of a crisis. In 2011, her son Justin, a Marine, was seriously injured in Afghanistan after an improvised explosive device went off during a patrol and threw him to the side of the road. He ended up losing both his legs below the knee.
But the crisis the Fisher House, a network of housing for military families, helped with wasn?t the immediate aftermath, when Crabbe, her husband Cliff, and their daughter, Jenn, rushed across the country from her their home in Rancho Cucamonga, California to be near their son as he spent three-and-a-half months in the hospital (including 19 days on a ventilator). This crisis was during the aftermath, when Justin was discharged and entering outpatient care, which meant the family?s time in government-provided housing was over. The military pays for housing during hospital stays, but afterwards, families are on their own, a difficult position to be in when veterans face months of rehabilitation.

Fisher House Foundation
A Fisher House in Long Beach, California

Crabbe found support, and a free place to stay, at the local Fisher House, part of a network of homes set up at military hospitals and heal...