This article by Karen Jowers originally appeared on Military Times, the nation's largest independent newsroom dedicated to covering the military and veteran community.
Citing military families’ continued problems with mold, asbestos, lead-based paint, and the Defense Department’s slow implementation of certain reforms, senators are pressing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for answers about what steps will be taken, and when.
In a letter sent to Austin, the senators outlined those concerns and asked for answers to 15 detailed questions by Jan. 2.
“We are concerned that as military families continue to experience exposure to lead, mold and other health risks from unsafe housing conditions, the private companies that provide on-base housing are disregarding their concerns,” wrote the senators, in their Dec. 6 letter. “The Department of Defense has a long way to go to fully implement reforms and restore military families’ confidence.”
[RELATED: MOAA Named to The Hill’s Top Lobbyist List for 17th Straight Year]
Five years after problems with military family housing reached a boiling point, and laws were enacted to reform the way the Defense Department oversees family housing, senators still want to know what is being done to address these hazards, when the Pentagon will establish a public complaint database for privatized military housing, and what the military is doing to improve the dispute resolution process when families can’t get their problems fixed.
The letter was signed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel subcommittee; and fellow subcommittee members Sens. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Tim Kaine, D-Va., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington also signed the letter.
The senators said they are “alarmed” by reports that military families continue to struggle with mold in their privatized housing. They cited the 2022 Blue Star Families Military Family Lifestyle Survey which found that 22% of active duty family members who responded to the online poll indicated their family had been exposed to environmental toxins in military housing.
[RELATED: VA Exceeds Annual Goal for Housing Homeless Veterans]
The senators raised questions about the Defense Department’s implementation of reforms enacted into law over the last several years to fix problems in military family housing. Families said their complaints were falling on deaf ears, the repairs weren’t being made and their health was suffering as a result. And the military wasn’t stepping in to address problems with privatized housing companies.
Following Reuters and other media reports and congressional hearings in 2019, laws were enacted in late 2019 and late 2020 to address the problems and force defense and service officials to provide better oversight of privatized housing landlords, and to be more responsive to families frustrated by lack of action. Among other things, families asked that a process be put into place to withhold their rent from the companies until the problems were fixed.
A number of military families have sued their privatized housing landlords in different locations.
The Pentagon and the services have taken a number of actions to address these problems with privatized housing, such as increasing the number of personnel at housing offices to provide better oversight, and to act as liaisons with families and landlords.
Other articles by Military Times:
US Army receives first long-range Precision Strike Missiles
How embracing a former enemy at Pearl Harbor ended one veteran’s war
Meet the Army’s first female active duty sniper