One U.S. military base has dubbed it Operation Victory Homefront. It's a mi...
WEST POINT, New York - One U.S. military base has dubbed it Operation Victory Homefront. It’s a mission the world’s most powerful military never envisioned.
“In my 23 years in the Army I’ve never seen them tackle a problem so head on,” said Colonel Harry Marson, the garrison commander at West Point, site of the U.S. Military Academy north of New York City. Marson is hiring additional housing staff, auditing maintenance records, and overseeing home visits on the post along the Hudson River.
One priority: a hiring spree on bases. At the recent hearing, the Army said it has already hired 119 new housing staff, and expects its private real estate partners to employ hundreds more, according to Alex Beehler, an Army assistant secretary. The Air Force has requested $31 million from Congress to hire 250 housing staff, said John Henderson, an Air Force assistant secretary.
For years, Reuters found, many families had little recourse as some of their children were sickened or suffered irreversible developmental delays. Federal base communities are typically outside the purview of state and local building code or environmental inspectors. Unlike in civilian communities, base tenants have often had limited ability to challenge powerful landlords in business with their military employers.
“Corvias is working hard to do right by this family and all other families in the program,” a spokeswoman wrote. “Corvias is taking a wide range of actions to improve military housing and return to the gold standard our residents expect and deserve.” Under a pilot program, Sarah Kline’s family is among 10 so far whose rent has been withheld from West Point’s housing partnership, operated by Pennsylvania-based Balfour Beatty Communities, encouraging the landlord to make swift repairs to their rental home.
Kline is awaiting repairs but expressed confidence her home will be fixed. The Army, she said, is good at putting boots on the ground, but she worries the costly measures will be short-lived on military bases unless Congress and commanders sustain their vigilance. The Air Force’s Henderson told Congress this month that fraudulent activity had been detected at the housing venture serving the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. One worker was recently arrested, and the private housing partner there, Texas-based Hunt Military Communities, has agreed to reimburse the Academy $169,000, he said.
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