July 08, 2019
Provisions Would Impose Greater Transparency and Accountability for Private Military Housing Contractors
Provisions from Warren-Haaland Bill to Address Unsafe Military Housing Advance in the Senate
Provisions Would Impose Greater Transparency and Accountability for Private Military Housing Contractors
Washington, DC - The United States Senate advanced a
number of provisions from the Military
Housing Oversight and Service Member Protection Act, a comprehensive bill
that Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services
Committee (SASC) and the Military Personnel Subcommittee, and Representative
Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee,
introduced to address disturbing reports
of unsafe and unsanitary conditions in privatized, on-base housing for military
personnel and their families. “It
is unacceptable that thousands of our servicemembers and their families have
been forced to live in housing with mice, mold, and lead paint—while the
private companies that maintain them line their pockets with profits,” said
Senator Warren. “While this bill is an important first step to addressing
this problem, I’ll continue fighting to increase oversight and transparency at
DOD so that our military families get the high-quality housing they deserve.” The bill's provisions, which passed
the Senate as part of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA),
would:
- Establish a public complaint
database accessible by all tenants and require that housing providers
address all such complaints.
- Require the annual publication
of financial details of each housing contract and that housing providers
publish an annual financial statement in the Federal Register.
- Allow residents to submit a
request to withhold rent payments if the landlord has not met established
maintenance guidelines or procedures, or if the housing unit is
uninhabitable according to State and local law.
- Instruct the Department of
Defense (DOD) to publish an annual report on all privatized housing units
that includes all requests by tenants to withhold their Basic Allowance
for Housing (BAH) due to poor housing conditions that were denied.
- Establish guidelines for the
installation housing management office to conduct an investigation, when
needed, within 15 days. If the installation commander consents to the
withholding of BAH, this provision further requires landlords to
immediately remediate the identified issues. For each five-day period that the issues are not remediated,
the landlord will lose the ability to recoup 10% of the funds withheld.
- Require the Defense Secretary
to consider any history of a landlord providing substandard housing when
determining whether to enter into or renew a contract with a private
housing provider.
- Require the Defense Secretary
to withhold funds from the private housing provider if the provider is
found to be in material breach of the contract and doesn’t correct it
within 90 days, and prevent those providers from entering into new
contracts.
The Military Housing Oversight and
Service Member Protection Act was introduced
in April 2019 by Senator Warren and Representative Haaland following a series
of investigative reports by Reuters
revealing that servicemembers and their families who live in on-base
housing owned by private housing developers have been exposed to lead
paint, vermin infestations, fecal and urine trails, bursting pipes, flooding,
mold growth, collapsed ceilings, electric and fire hazards, and other
substandard living conditions as a result of inadequate maintenance by housing
companies. At a Senate Armed Services
Committee hearing on this issue in February 2019, Senator Warren demanded
information on profits and incentive payments from private companies
providing substandard housing to military families and questioned
DOD officials about the lack of oversight of privatized military
housing. She also opened
an investigation into the matter, which revealed
a series of problems and failures in the basic structure of the privatized
military housing program and in the administration and oversight of this
program by the private housing companies and the DOD. Most recently, she also sent
letters to Balfour Beatty
Communities, a private military housing developer, and Assistant Secretary of
the Air Force John W. Henderson, requesting information about reports that
Balfour has submitted falsified maintenance records to the Air Force in order
to receive millions in performance incentive fees – while the Air Force failed
to conduct its oversight responsibilities and while military families were
living in the company’s unsafe and unsanitary housing. The Senator also wrote
separately to Inspector General (IG) of the Air Force Lt. General Sami D. Said
urging him to investigate the allegations.After hearing about unsafe housing
conditions from Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB) families, Congresswoman
Haaland demanded
answers during a House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness
hearing. The hearing covered the mismanagement of housing programs for military
families.Senate co-sponsors of the Military
Housing Oversight and Service Member Protection Act include Senators Richard
Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.),
Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and
Gary Peters (D-Mich).
- Instruct the Department of Defense (DOD) to publish an annual report on all privatized housing units that includes all requests by tenants to withhold their Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) due to poor housing conditions that were denied.
- Establish guidelines for the installation housing management office to conduct an investigation, when needed, within 15 days. If the installation commander consents to the withholding of BAH, this provision further requires landlords to immediately remediate the identified issues. For each five-day period that the issues are not remediated, the landlord will lose the ability to recoup 10% of the funds withheld.
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