Most of us have probably been part of the on-going conversation about the state of military housing. I wanted to try and put together some of my thoughts and hear about experiences and recommendations others have on the subject to help provide useful discussion at the Town Halls occurring across the Army.

My background: I currently live on-post at Aberdeen Proving Ground. It is the only time in my seven years in the Army I’ve lived on-post and, in general, it has been a decent experience. The group of houses in my living area are old (~1930s/40s?), but they are taken care of.

Issues:

-Work orders have long lead times and there is not good communication between repairers and the renter. IE: Repairers do not schedule a time with the military occupant and show up when convenient for them.

-Quality of repairs is not in line with the current status of the house. For instance, using epoxy to repair slate steps where the rest is bound with concrete. This leads to residents being wary to submit work orders that will detract from the house’s appearance.

-Lack of QA/QC and cleanliness of houses. When I arrived and signed for my house, the garage was filthy, had a snake living in it, and the back concrete wall was partially collapsed. This did not set a good first impression.

-The process for acquiring a house is not transparent or user friendly at all. The housing website for APG lists all houses on-post and does not give an idea of what is actually available and to what ranks. The wait list concept is also not well communicated. This led to a span of 2-3 months where I was trying to perform in my previous position (company command) while also trying to deal with securing housing at my follow-on duty station. It was almost as if the housing company didn’t really care if I resided on-post or not, which seems like a major business issue.

Other Useful (?) Information: While in company command, my BDE Commander talked to us about military housing. The original topic was how commanders had lost a lot of influence on housing and some of the discipline issues that arise there. The conversation ended up moving towards a broader discussion on military housing and its history.  From what my BDE Commander said, military housing used to be government ran, by the installation’s DPW. DPWs apparently used to be staffed by a larger portion of military (mainly Engineers) and the upkeep was totally on the government. Some DPW signs on APG still have the Engineer Castle insignia, so this would make sense. His perception was that, while it’s not perfect now, it was worse back when the military was responsible for managing and upkeep.

Overall Conclusions: While the housing company has done a decent job at maintaining our house, I do not have the perception there is a general concern with making the experience as good of a one as possible. In my opinion, there is a connection between providing good “customer service” from beginning to end and the prevention of serious maintenance issues such as mold and structural deficiencies. I think there should be some type of larger military oversight on housing (family housing and barracks), but this may be difficult depending on the agreements that were made when the housing companies took responsibility.

What are your thoughts and experiences? Have your dealings with on-post housing been pleasant ones? What about your Soldiers? How does the state of the barracks compare to family housing? What do you see as a potential solution?