AURORA | David Mathews has spent the last week rearranging cabinets, tearing up flooring, and taking out door frames for a different kind of renovation.
Mathews is a volunteer with The Home Builders Foundation of Metro Denver. He’s helping modify a ranch-style town house in south Aurora for 20-year-old Stefan Moton. The aspiring mixed martial arts fighter was shot in the collarbone in the Aurora Theater Shooting last July. The bullet pierced his spine. He now uses a wheelchair to navigate, paralyzed from the neck down.
Home renovations can put a dent in the pockets of a family with a rainy-day fund. They can devastate a family deluged with medical bills in the wake of sudden tragedy. In those instances, HBF steps in, funding otherwise-pricey home modifications through volunteer time, grants and donations to applicants who qualify.
Moton’s family approached HBF soon after the shooting, according to the organization’s director Beth Forbes.
“He was a patient at Craig Hospital and they often refer their patients to us in need of home modifications,” she wrote. “We conducted a site visit at his family’s home at the time and due to the layout and setup, determined it was best for Stefan’s long-term needs if they found a different home.”
Moton has not been home since the night of the shooting and currently lives in an assisted care facility.
Funding from HBF, Craig Hospital and the Denver Metro Fair Housing Center allowed contractors to install a roll-in shower, widen doorways and provide easier access from the garage to much of the new space at no cost to Stefan and his family. Forbes said the renovations would have cost more than $7,500 out-of-pocket.
Mathews calls it “demolition by discovery,” pointing to a noticeable lack of flooring where a peninsula cabinet once jutted from the kitchen counter.
“We realized right away Stefan would be bumping his chair, and it would be frustrating,” he said. The rearranged cabinets now sit straight against the wall providing easier access to and from the main living area.
Stefan wrote in an email that he looks forward to the improvements as he enters this next chapter of his life.
HBF staff said the home should be ready for move-in by the end of the week.
I thought it was the governments job to do this? that’s why they are taxing us to death so they can take of us from cradle to grave right?
“Me me me me, My name is Tom and if someone other than me gets something it is a waste of tax money. Anyone who does not agree with me is a worthless maggot. Me me me me. I am a taker and like to criticize everyone and everything that was not pre-ordained by Rush.”
Conservative logic would lead us to believe that corporations should get all the breaks. I for one would rather see my neighbors get the breaks.
Quit you whining you little girl.
YOU’re FORGETING….you’re the mooching maggot…you are the one “MOOCHING” off everyone else…you’re grandparents were poverty pimps…your parents are poverty pimps and now you a total failure that needs to have other people support your inbreded butt scratching a$$…again….shut your uneducated baboon mouth.
You forget, just like politics and the economy, you only base your agruments on your opinion and conjecture. You know nothing about me, yet profess to have details of my life. Just like your other view, you are completely wrong. I am by no means reich, but make a decent living and pay into the the system much more than I take out. That is typically the way it is. Liberals and Blue states pay the bills and you and your kind whine and lie.
FACTS:Obama said: “you can keep your doctor” LIE…Obama said: “your premiums will go down by $2500 a year,,,LIE….Obama said:…you can keep your healtcare…LIE….Obama knew in 2010 that 80% of the people would lose their health care and has lied and lied ever since….even the maggot liberal scumbag NBC repoted that….and you are the maggots that keep supporting a lying extremist dictator terrorist…that makes you the enemy.,,,AGAIN SHUT YOUR UNEDCATED BABOON MOUTH…..YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID.
Sorry, he ran off.
You may want to take another look at your “blue states pay the bills” claim.
Demographics that very heavily vote Democrat – blacks and Latinos – are far more welfare-dependent than whites, far more likely to be incarcerated, and far more likely to need government aid in general due to their overall much lower level of education and socioeconomic status of whites.
You’re talking demographics – and minority demographics due tend to be more inflicted by poverty – whereas he’s talking about states. His claim that blue states pay the bills is largely correct. Blue states – that is, states that traditionally vote Democrat or have Democrat leaders in office, tend to contribute more to the federal government than what they take. Red states tend to take more from the federal government than what they give. This is somewhat ironic, since red state leaders consistently complain about those who “take”.
I live in Colorado. This is not a blue state, and your “list” claims it. Try again.
I believe the list is based on 2012 election results. Who did Colorado go for again?
Are you gonna say Romney? … Try again.
The 15 states most dependent on the federal government (in order from most to least): New Mexico, Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, Montana, West Virginia, Arizona, Louisiana, South Dakota, Maine, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Georgia, Wyoming.
The states least dependent on the federal government (in order from least to most): New Jersey, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Ohio, New Hampshire, Iowa, Arkansas, Colorado, Utah. (WalletHub)
Demographics that heavily vote Democratic are the ones with the highest welfare dependency rates.
That doesn’t change those statistics; nice try though! States that go Dem tend to do better; it’s all right there. (Even if you want to leave your precious Colorado off – you can look at it state by state – enjoy!)
“Statistics reveal that the city holding the most beneficiaries of the SNAP program (a favorite target of the GOP) is 99.22% white and 95% Republican. Owsley County, Kentucky earns the lowest median household income in the country, but they are the most prolific government-takers in U.S. existence.”
Drop mic…
I think you misinterpreted what he said. You’re just aching to tell somebody off aren’t you? They have medications for that, moron.