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John Gonsalves, a construction supervisor has a great organization that builds homes for troops returning from Iraq and Afganistan that are paralyzed or suffering  a serious  injury. The organization, Homes for our Troops, has been operating for  3 years and has built 3 homes. The hardest part  of his job is finding affordable  land for the homes that they want  to build.

But now Mr. Gonsalves, 39, may need to start a new organization: Land for Homes for Our Troops. Finding the lots to build the houses on has proved a stumbling block, Mr. Gonsalves said. “The real estate is the hardest part,” he said.

Mr. Gonsalves, soft-spoken and earnest, has created a groundswell of support for his organization, with donors like the singer Billy Joel and the golfer Phil Mickelson. Most labor and materials for the houses have been donated.

“Companies have been incredibly generous,” Mr. Gonsalves said. But without a piece of property, there is nowhere for the generosity to go.

One soldier already owned property. Another was able to build on a corner of a family plot. But those are the exceptions.

For other disabled veterans, in an overheated real estate market, just finding the land for a free house is nearly impossible.

Mr. Gonsalves is particularly eager to find a lot in Dale City, Va., 25 miles southeast of Washington. That’s the hometown of Eugene Simpson, a 27-year-old father of four. Mr. Simpson, whose spinal cord was severed when a bomb exploded under his Humvee in Tikrit in April, was paralyzed from the waist down.

Right now, Mr. Simpson and his family are living with his parents in a three-level house in Dale City, where he is confined to the ground floor. Homes for Our Troops has committed to building him a wheelchair-accessible dwelling. And Mr. Gonsalves is determined to do it in Dale City.

“How do you tell a guy like this, ‘You’re going to have to move out into the middle of nowhere,’ ” Mr. Gonsalves said. Mr. Simpson said he wants to be close enough to his parents so that “if my wife’s not here and I need assistance, I can get it.”

But in Dale City, a section of Woodbridge developed in the 1950’s, land is at a premium. The community, Mr. Simpson said in a telephone interview, “is going from middle class to upper middle class.”

“Everywhere you look, they’re building giant houses,” he said.

Mike Minnery, a broker at Re/Max Allegiance in Dale City, said that, at present, “there are no residential building lots that can be bought in Dale City.” A commercial lot, the least expensive piece of property on the market, he said, is listed at $700,000. via NY Times

This seems like a very worthwhile organization, see if there is any way you can help them out.

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