Military Housing. When you read those words – what comes to mind?
Clean? Free? Mold? Long wait?
It depends on your perspective. If you are a military family familiar with military housing organizations included Liberty Military Housing, formerly Lincoln Military Housing, or Hunt Military Community, you may just feel frustrated – there is a long wait for a smaller house that has mold or no air conditioning. If you are a civilian without a military connection, perhaps the word that comes to mind is free housing – so you don’t understand why there are occasional articles in your news feed.
For military family members, housing is a big factor to figure out with each move. Military members are given a Basic Allowance for Housing, BAH, which is part of their compensation which is supposed to cover 95% of housing costs at each duty station. This means that military members are required to pay for at least some out-of-pocket expenses, For most areas though, military members are paying hundreds out of pocket for rent – plus the expenses of gas, electric, trash, water and internet/television, so that can run out to $1,000 over the BAH. These expenses can be too much for a military family to spend. Military housing is an option where the company takes all of the military members BAH for the home and then just charges for electrical or gas depending on the base in addition to internet or television. Military housing can be more affordable. Affordable housing does not always mean safest or best.
Military housing used to be handled by the military branch at the base. For example, a Navy base had housing managed by the Navy and the same for Army base, etc. As of now, 99% of military housing is owned and operated by private sector companies. When the private sectors took over, electrical costs for example were then put to the tenant of the home. However, the bases were not initially built with this in mind. So streetlights are now linked to military homes and those families are paying for it and not the military base.
Further, military housing has issues with mold, water leakage, and lack of timely responses to these issues. The US Government Accountability Office, GAO, has reviewed the laws put into place in 2019 to increase the Department of Defenses oversight on the private companies, with specific recommendations for the DOD.
A More Streamlined Dispute Resolution Process
One common concern for military families utilizing military housing is the lack of a clear chain of command on how and who to bring disputes to. A chain of command is a well-known structure to active duty members. The 2020 NDAA required the DOD to provide residents a specific formal dispute resolution process to assist with issues with private housing companies. While guidance was recommended by the Secretary of Defense, it was not clear and concise. The GAO recommends actual detailed information on how to file a formal dispute.
Better Oversight
The 2020 NDAA also required that the DOD do inspections on privatized homes prior to resident occupancy. While inspections were formed, the GAO did not develop consistent inspection standards for each military department and recommends that these are developed.
Improved Tenant Advocate
The 2020 NDAA also required that residents have access to a tenant advocate. Each military department does have a person assigned for this, but the GAO found that there was not a clearly defined role nor was there communication to the residents on how to use the tenant advocate. The GAO recommends that these guidelines are clear with clear communication.
Nineteen Recommendations for Executive Action
The GAO has outlined nineteen recommendations for executive action, which can be read here. Each of these guidelines are for specific departments – Army, Air Force, Navy and the Department of Defense are listed specifically. Recommendation 10 for example states that the Secretary of Defense ensures that the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Housing develop a mechanism to collect and incorporate resident feedback on the formal dispute resolution.
A timeline for these changes are not listed on the GAO website, but the recommendations will remain open until they are addressed.
Anibal Maldonado-Colon says
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Abigail and Anibal Maldonado