Living conditions need to improve for our military men and women. When you think about the costs of our service members to protect America, the bare minimum in return that we can give them is decent health care, food, and housing. Congress and the Pentagon can, and must, do more to make sure that military housing is not risky for those, and their families.
A recent government study found that there are unacceptably hazardous living conditions for the members of the military. The General Accounting Office (GAO), notified Congress on September 27, 2023, “Junior-enlisted service members without dependents (e.g., a spouse or child) typically live in military-managed barracks. GAO reported in September 2023 that some barracks pose serious health and safety risks.” The agency “observed a variety of living conditions that service members and unit leaders stated were negatively affecting their quality of life, such as sewage overflow, mold and mildew, and broken windows and locks.”
The conclusions of the GAO are unacceptable. The problem is that service members, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, primarily live in privatized family housing or barracks run by the U.S. government - and suffer from various states of disrepair and substandard construction. Our military should not have to deal with sewage overflows in their homes and substandard air quality. It is absurd to subject the military to these hardships and it should anger Americans who want their hard-earned tax dollars to be used to help military personnel to have decent living conditions.
The good news is there are companies and partners with the Pentagon who are working to create healthy, livable homes for the military. One such company, Corvias, announced on March 20, 2024, the “International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), the world’s largest certification body for healthy buildings, recently launched the WELL for Residential Program, which is helping identify and measure ways that homes can support health and resilience, through factors such as air, water, light, thermal comfort, sound, materials, nourishment, community, mind, and movement.” Corvias has become the largest participant in the program, committing to enroll twenty-two thousand homes across seven military installations for improvement.
Corvias is not only registering for WELL certification, but also importantly applying a seven-step program “designed to enhance the quality of life and well-being of service members and their families, includes a scientific assessment, pre- and post-installation measurements, and the prescription of high-impact interventions across major indoor health domains such as air, water, and light quality.” The program includes reporting and measuring metrics which indicate whether indoor environmental quality, including air, water and lighting is better or not while also soliciting feedback about the conditions. The company has become a case study in how to fix the issues of substandard housing that lead to negative impacts on national security, comfort of personnel, and military readiness. Other companies in the program should follow the lead of Corvias.
Living conditions of the military should be of high quality. It is baseline to provide decent air quality, clean water, lighting, and a healthy environment for enlisted personnel. Many Americans take for granted the conditions of their housing, and the quality of the resources in their community, but this is not so for many in the military. Depending on deployment, the air and water quality can be a problem, yet one which can easily be addressed in a cost-effective way. Furthermore, lighting is an issue for some while many have a challenge because they are not in a facility where it is easy to sleep. Again, things most Americans take for granted, yet we push our voluntary military men and women into conditions that are substandard.
The Pentagon needs to act on this now and not wait for Congress. Members of Congress should encourage and enable military leaders to act now to resolve these issues. Waiting will only harm more military men and women who give our nation so much. Furthermore, this program should be extended to other military housing such as barracks, not just military homes, to greatly improve the physical and mental health of American troops.
It is clear that measurable improvements are needed, particularly for existing housing inventory. Thankfully, there are private partners who can help, but the funding needs to be allocated to make sure that our military has decent housing.
Peter Mihalick is former legislative director and counsel to former Reps. Barbara Comstock, Virginia Republican, and Rodney Blum, Iowa Republican
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