Veterans and other volunteers team up with Habitat for Humanity of Illinois to build townhomes in West Pullman

New townhomes are going up in Chicago's West Pullman neighborhood, with veterans and civilian volunteers rolling up their sleeves to help Habitat for Humanity of Illinois build not just homes, but community.

Service never ends. That's the theme for Habitat for Humanity of Illinois as they're launching the sixth annual Veterans Build project across the Chicago area.

Their focus on Friday was in the West Pullman neighborhood, at the corner of 115th and Morgan, where 20 volunteers from Chicago Veterans and Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago put in their sweat equity to help with the construction of new townhomes.

How hard is it?

"I'm getting a little tired, but it's well worth it," said Brandon Rokonosh, product and strategy manager for Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago.

Lourdes Fernando is one of the volunteers. She's a veteran, serving 11 years in the Army National Guard. She worked on the first townhome building at the site last year.

"I'm not going to lie, when I came up, I was kind of a little emotional. I was like, 'Oh my God!' You know, you start to see the finished product. So, when it looks like this, just imagine seeing that and what the end result looks like," she said.

It took volunteers a little over a year to finish the first building. Habitat for Humanity said they're on track to finish a second building in spring of next year. In total, they'll build five buildings and they said it will take about five to six years to finish all of them.

"Specifically today, it touches me a little bit more, just because I am a veteran myself. And so, doing what we do, and being able to do my job, and kind of call veterans back into service to work together towards building homes, it's always exciting," said site supervisor Jose Morales.

This year, 20 teams will mobilize throughout November in honor of Veterans Day, bringing veterans, volunteers, and community members together to highlight the critical need for affordable housing and home repairs for military families.

"Veterans still face different housing issues. Whether that's able to afford a mortgage to purchase their first home and build generational wealth, or whether that is to remain in their homes with having to address critical home repairs," said Leslie Rodrigurez, director of veteran & repair programs for Habitat for Humanity of Illinois.