VA receives grant for construction of Fisher House at the VA’s Heinz campus in O’Hara Township

By: Tribune-Review
Monday, July 24, 2023 | 3:16 PM

Friends of the Pittsburgh Fisher House has received a $250,000 grant toward construction of a 16-suite Fisher House

on the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System’s H. John Heinz III campus in O’Hara Township.

Groundbreaking is set for 2024.

The donor is a local foundation that wishes to remain anonymous.

“We are honored to receive this show of support from the foundation,” said Charles (CJ) Johnston, Friends of the Pittsburgh Fisher House board president. “It represents a milestone in our fundraising efforts to build the second Fisher House.”

The grant brings the foundation’s Helping Heroes Heal capital campaign to just over $1.5 million, said Johnston. The campaign seeks to raise $3 million in local donations and pledges for the house, which will complement an existing 10-suite Fisher House at VA Pittsburgh’s University Drive campus.

Fisher Houses provide homelike, free lodging in a stress-free setting to guests of veteran and active-duty military patients in VA medical centers.

Since opening in 2012, the Fisher House in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood has provided more than 31,860 days of free lodging to more than 8,760 guests, saving veterans and their families $3.7 million.

“Very few cities support two Fisher Houses,” said Johnston. “With the second house, Pittsburgh will increase our offering of free housing for up to 9,490 guests every year.”

The Helping Heroes Heal capital campaign is led by Pittsburgh native and retired Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, formerly director of the CIA and the NSA; Jeanine Carrier Hayden; and Army veteran Rory A. Cooper, Ph.D., founding director and VA senior research career scientist of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories, a VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Center of Excellence in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh.