Each month, Helping Hands features a mortgage professional or group that has volunteered to lend a hand to others in need

Ivanna C. Sukkar

As published in Scotsman Guide's Residential Edition, June 2008.

Name Aaron Cuha, managing director, Directlender.com and Lender Recovery

Project Serving as board member and national treasurer for Operation Homefront

Site Nationwide

How Operation Homefront assists military personnel and their families nationwide and overseas. Cuha says he got involved in early 2007 after meeting the organization's past chief executive officer at a nonprofit event.

Through the organization's Wounded Warrior Housing Initiative, which started earlier this year, lenders and homebuilders offer discounts and special considerations to wounded soldiers and their families to help them get affordable housing and avoid foreclosure.

Other services include emergency aid, financial assistance, furniture donations, social outreach and more.

Cuha says both of his companies support the organization and the housing initiative. Directlender.com offers incentives and discounts on loan programs, and Lender Recovery -- a loss-mitigation and loan-modification company -- offers free services for active-duty personnel and wounded soldiers, he says.

Why Cuha says he joined Operation Homefront because he felt that "it's really a great organization."

"It's unbelievable what it does [for veterans and wounded soldiers]," he says.

For example, Cuha says Operation Homefront is helping an Iraq-war veteran who is 70-percent disabled and who is facing foreclosure. He says Lender Recovery is helping the organization assist the veteran with a loan-modification program.

"The lender wouldn't negotiate with him," Cuha says. "We got involved, and we think we'll reach a satisfactory end where he can keep his home."

Impact The Wounded Warrior Housing Initiative kicked off by helping Army Spc. Austin Johnson, a veteran wounded in Iraq, and his wife purchase a new home this past January in San Antonio.

Since then, the initiative has been helping about a dozen homeowners facing foreclosure, says Kerry McGinley, associate editor for CinCHouse.com, the organization's online magazine.

Try it operationhomefront.net; (800) 722-6098

Ivanna C. Sukkar is an associate editor at Scotsman Guide. Reach her at (800) 297-6061 or ivanna@scotsmanguide.com.

To share your company's story, e-mail helpinghands@scotsmanguide.com.