They lost their lease. Facing homelessness, a SC wounded warrior and family find a home

The holiday season was looking pretty grim for the Makinson family.

The lease on their apartment in Seneca was not renewed, and they didn’t know where to go. They thought maybe the five of them — Allen and Kayla and their children Molly, Titan and Mattos — would need to pack into their van for a while.

Then came the Military Warriors Support Foundation and Bank of America, which through their Homes for Heroes partnership, gave the Makinsons a mortgage-free townhouse on Polo Road in Columbia.

“It was a huge blessing,” Allen Makinson said.

Makinson is a Marine veteran. He enlisted when he was 18 in 2008, something he had yearned for since he was 12 and saw the World Trade Center towers fall on Sept. 11, 2001. He wanted to fight against the agents that brought that on, fight for an America he believed in.

After boot camp at Parris Island and the School of Infantry at Camp Geiger in North Carolina, he was sent to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Two months later, he was in a Humvee when it rolled over a roadside bomb. He suffered a traumatic brain injury from the initial blast and resulting gas tank explosion.

As fire consumed the vehicle, Makinson’s squad leader and team leader pulled him out and laid on top of him as a rocket that had been stored over Makinson’s head blew up. They saved his life. They were not injured.

He spent two and a half months in a military hospital. The Marines gave him a choice: go home or go back to the war effort. He chose the latter.

“I didn’t lose my arms and legs,” was how Makinson described his decision.

Others did. To be a Marine is to be tough.

“I didn’t want my man card pulled,” he said.

Also, he would never have forgiven himself if he had not gone back and another member of his platoon was maimed or killed.

He spent another two years in the Marines, training with Jordanian forces and then was sent back to Afghanistan.

When he was discharged with the rank of lance corporal in 2011, he said he took some time to decompress and lived in Spartanburg with his sister.

When he went home to Seneca, he got reacquainted with a fellow Chick-fil-A worker, the woman who would become his wife, Kayla.

Makinson decided to study criminal justice and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree through the online program American Military University. He wants to become a law enforcement officer.

Kayla Makinson is studying to be a paramedic.

All seemed well. Then they lost their apartment. As Makinson considered where he would find a new home for his family, he remembered seeing something online about an organization that helps wounded soldiers.

Makinson searched the internet and found Homes 4 Wounded Heroes. He saw a place in Columbia. and in a strange twist, it was the same house he remembered from his earlier search.

This was the beginning of October.

The Makinsons applied. Twenty-one days later they were approved for a mortgage-free home, and they moved in on Nov. 3.

Bank of America has donated more than 2,500 homes nationwide to military veteran-support charities and other nonprofit organizations.

“We remain extremely committed to supporting veterans, service members and their families who have contributed so much to our communities and our country,” said Kim Wilkerson, president, Bank of America South Carolina.

The Makinsons are responsible only for property taxes and other incidental expenses and after three years will own the home outright, Allen Makinson said.

It was a change to be living in Columbia, more than two hours from family and friends, but much closer than other homes available in Mississippi and Missouri.

They feel right at home. More room. A nice neighborhood — no gunshots, and the only police around are people who live there. The children love Polo Road Elementary.

Makinson has applied for a job with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department and is serving as Mr. Mom until he finds a full-time job.

“At my greatest time of need, Military Warriors Support Foundation stepped in,” he said.

This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.