RICHMOND, Va. -- A devastating health emergency a decade ago changed the way one Richmond man saw the world. Bill Sweeney, the man who was close to death, has since made it his mission to make Richmond a shining example for the world.
Sweeney, 68, doesn’t give up as he works to change America one house at a time.
“I am loud. I am driven. I am tenacious. I don’t let go,” Sweeney said.
His mission began ten years ago, in February 2012, when the former executive suffered a catastrophic stroke in his spine while at work.
“Five days later they unplug me from a ventilator saying he’ll live or die. He’ll have brain damage or not,” Sweeney said.
The injury left the man who ran marathons and rock climbed near death and in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the chest down.
“You’ve got to absorb this shock of having your body just torn apart and put back together again,” he said.
The grandfather faced tasks like finding housing suitable for his chair and physical challenges.
He didn’t have much luck.
“I tried finding housing for myself. Try to advocate for housing for myself. I got tired of people on the other end of the line crying when there was no solution,” he said.
That moved Sweeney to start Boundryless Living. The company builds adaptive homes and promotes livable neighborhoods for all.
“Our initiative is to make Richmond the most livable place in the world,” Sweeney said.
He claims to be the world’s only paraplegic realtor.
“Ninety percent of the population I am trying to represent has no voice. They’re not even heard,” Sweeney said.
His spinal cord injury has given him a new perspective on life.
“We think there is a better way of living. I’ve got nothing to lose,” he said.
Bill and his team at Boundryless Living launched the non-profit Livability Initiative in August to find new solutions for people struggling to live in a world designed for able-bodied people.
“When you’re starting over with nothing I get to create the construct I feel is better than the one I was living before,” he said.
Sweeney wants national building codes that require every home to include a universal access bathroom on every first floor and zero threshold entrance in every house built in America.
“If I can change one person on how they see something then the whole world has been changed,” he said.
The changes will not happen overnight, but Sweeney is motivated to close the deal and make Richmond a shining example of what could be.
“I don’t know any different,” Sweeney said. “I’m just going to try to be an example of what living your dreams with love through passion looks like.”
