Helping out on the Utah homefront

Did you know that while American soldiers are fighting to protect your homes, some of them are losing theirs?

Ironic, isn't it?

As if the heat and the sand and the snipers and suicide bombers aren't enough, some soldiers have to worry about the hardships their families are enduring at home because of their absence.

It's simple, really. Many of the soldiers had to give up good- paying jobs to work for the Army on Army pay. More than one-third of military reservists and National Guard members suffer a cut in pay when they're called to active duty. So while they rush off to fight their war, their family not only loses a father and husband for a time, but part of his salary as well -- sometimes $2,000 or more per month.

By law their jobs have to be there when they return, but what happens in the meantime if they're not making enough money to pay their family's bills? What happens to businesses they own, or benefits or bonuses they have counted on in the past?

What happens when they lose clients to other competitors? How do they make up for the difference in pay between their civilian jobs and their Army jobs and the money they lost while they were on active duty?

The soldiers aren't the only members of the family who are paying a price in Iraq. Not only does active duty usually mean the loss of the primary wage earner, but a working spouse must either cut back her work hours or quit her job to take care of children because she can no longer afford day care.

As Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn once said, "Citizen soldiers have answered the call to duty. They put their lives on the line to defend our freedoms. We owe it to their families to lend a helping hand."

That's exactly what United Way's Homefront Response is trying to do -- helping soldiers' families while they're serving their country. So far, they've assisted the families of 85 soldiers in 50 cities in Utah during the past 10 months.

"The biggest problem we've seen is with utility shutoff and mortgage collection," says the United Way's Sara Nelson. "We have to help with that. We've seen a lot of people who would lose their house if they didn't get assistance."

Homefront Response also has paid for car repairs, new water heaters, flood damage, leaky roofs, medical bills and child care.

"For the families, it's a case of being able to maintain, but then something happened and they can't afford to, say, fix the transmission or a roof that leaks," says Nelson. "Administering the fund is time-consuming.

"We have to look at every application. The committee looks at it closely -- they're not throwing money out. We find out if this is a need that's been caused by the deployment or is this bad personal financing and they were in crisis before the deployment."

The way it works is that various agencies bring cases to United Way -- Red Cross, Salt Lake Community Action Program, Dixie Care and Share, etc. -- seeking financial help from Homefront Response. In return, those agencies can't receive a dime for overhead while arranging for the funds -- all the money must go directly to military families.

The trick is getting the money in the first place. United Way depends on donations. Locally, Homefront Response has relied heavily on one major donor, a former vet who has requested anonymity. He has donated $150,000 so far and offered another $50,000 as needed. Donations from the rest of the community have totaled about $20,000. "As you can see, most of the money has come from a very generous man and his company," says Nelson. The generous man also has agreed to pay the difference between civilian and military pay to all those who are called to active duty who either work for his company or do business with his company.

He figures that since soldiers are helping their country, maybe their country can help them.

Doug Robinson's column runs on Tuesdays. E-MAIL drob@desnews.com.

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