Senators press Pentagon over privatized family housing, cite health harms and funding cuts
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Summary
Senators raised concerns about the condition of privatized military family housing and reductions in family housing accounts for the Army and Navy, highlighting testimony about a child's severe skin condition linked to mold at a privatized property and requesting departmental follow-up.
Senators at a subcommittee hearing pressed Defense Department officials about the condition of privatized family housing and recent reductions in funding for family housing accounts.
Ranking Member Ossoff called privatized family housing "a mess," recounting testimony by Captain Samuel Cho about his daughter's mold-related illness at a Balfour Beatty Homes development at Fort Gordon: "her skin became hardened and rough and reptilian in nature. And when she would scratch it, it would bleed profusely." Ossoff said cuts to family housing accounts for the Army and Navy risk reducing the department's ability to hold privatized housing contractors to account.
Assistant Secretary Dale Marks said the department is taking a "hard look" at family housing issues and working with the services to identify needed investments. Senators asked for timely updates and for the department to provide the subcommittee with information that supports congressional oversight.
Why it matters: Privatized family housing affects the health and safety of service members and their families, and the subcommittee raised concerns that funding reductions could hamper oversight and remediation.
Provenance: Ranking Member Ossoff's remarks recounting Captain Cho's testimony and questions about family housing funding appear in the opening statements and follow-up questioning (transcript spans beginning at 00:24:09 and 00:27:42).