JULY 31, 2025 – For military families or veterans going through a medical crisis, a new resource in the Chicago area may be able to ease the logistical and financial burden of getting treatment.
Yesterday, the Fisher House Foundation officially dedicated its 100th Fisher House, which was built at the James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in north Chicago.
Fisher Houses offer critical housing and support to the military and veteran communities. Service members, veterans, their families and their caretakers can stay at a Fisher House at no cost while their loved one receives treatment and/or rehabilitation — similar to the care afforded to the families of sick children by the Ronald McDonald House or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“This is one of those basic, yet underappreciated needs that kind of slipped through the cracks,” said Ken Fisher, chairman and CEO of Fisher House Foundation.
It’s taxing on a family to have a loved one in a hospital, but that stress is often exacerbated by having to drive back and forth, sometimes for hours each day, to a treatment facility. Fisher Houses help relieve that burden and allow families to start the healing process during treatment.
“It makes them better caregivers because the financial burden is removed,” Fisher said. “It also makes the patient better because now they don’t have to worry about … how their [family will] get home at 11 p.m., because most of these houses are all within walking distance of the facility.”
The north Chicago house marks a major milestone for the Fisher House Foundation, which built its first house to serve military families at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1990.
The crowd attending the dedication included Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins and Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient Army Sgt. Allen Lynch, who presented a plaque to hang inside the new house to symbolize support for the families staying there.
As of June 2025, Fisher Houses have served 534,000 military and veteran families, saving them more than $650 million in lodging and transportation costs. That equates to 12.5 million days of free lodging offered.
“I think the most important impact that the foundation has had, other than the free lodging and the other things that we provide, is that we have been able to evolve in a way that met the changing needs of the today’s veteran,” Fisher said, referring to the Hotels for Heroes and Hero Miles programs the foundation runs, along with its support of the Warrior Games and the Invictus Games.
The location for the new house was chosen largely because Lovell FHCC is a joint VA and Defense Department facility in a city that handles a huge number of veterans and service men and women. Aside from its main hospital, Lovell FHCC also operates two outpatient clinics elsewhere in Illinois and one in Kenosha, Wisconsin. It also has four clinics at Naval Station Great Lakes for Navy recruits, other area military members and their families.
The new house follows the mold of most of the other Fisher Houses. It boasts more than 14,000 square feet of room with 16 suites, all of which are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The home has a spacious kitchen for cooking and a large communal living area, as well as dining and family rooms, a laundry room and a shared patio.
There’s no time limit for stays, either; people can receive lodging for a few nights or several months.
Fisher Houses are located on several military installations and near VA hospitals, including in the United Kingdom and Germany. In the past 35 years, they’ve become a community, of sorts, for families to lean on each other while going through a shared experience.
“It’s the impact that we’ve had on these families that have been the most profound,” Fisher said. “We have taken an extreme burden off military and veteran families that serve this nation.”
Like all Fisher Houses, once the north Chicago house was built by the private foundation, the keys were handed to VA officials, who will manage it in perpetuity.
Those looking to stay at a Fisher House usually receive a referral either from a case manager, social worker or noncommissioned officer; however, patients can contact the houses directly.
If you need help or want to refer a patient, visit www.fisherhouse.org, identify the Fisher House closest to your medical facility and talk with the house manager, who can walk you through the process.
The foundation isn’t stopping at 100. More houses are in the works, with construction underway for a new house in Little Rock, Arkansas.
By Katie Lange, DOD News