WASHINGTON — This week, the U.S. Department of Defense announced a new online housing feedback system would launch to learn more about the experiences of service members and military families living in privatized military housing.
Using the new online portal, families and service members can submit feedback about the condition of their housing unit and get a response from their privatized landlord.
Channel 2 Washington Correspondent Samantha Manning broke down how the new system works and the impact it could have on the quality of military housing moving forward.
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This comes after years of reports on the widespread poor living conditions at military bases including mold affecting the health of the families living there.
From overflowing sewage to mold and sewage inside the homes of military families, there are issues Channel 2 Action News has been investigating for years.
“We have lived in three back-to-back duty stations and each house that we have lived in on-base housing has had some form of mold problems,” Alacai Camechis, a military spouse and veteran, told Channel 2 Action News.
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Military service members across the country have reported unsafe living conditions and the trouble they’ve faced getting help from the private companies running the housing properties.
Now, lawmakers in the Senate Armed Services Committee are paying attention.
The new privatized military housing feedback system launched by the DOD is expected to increase transparency and accountability.
The database is one of multiple reforms now required by law to address military housing problem.s
A recent survey by the non-profit Military Family Action Network showed that privatized housing conditions are starting to get better, but families are still having a hard time finding affordable housing.
“The privatized housing experiences, the military housing, we are seeing improvements. People are reporting there is a shorter wait time between when they raise an issue from a maintenance perspective,” Shannon Razsadin, MFAN, said. “We are also seeing that families are having a harder time finding housing.”
Advocates for military families say that while the feedback system is an important step in a years-long journey to improve military housing, it’s critical to make sure the families living in military housing know the portal exists.
They said awareness and understanding how it works need to be a priority for it to be a successful tool.
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