FEBRUARY 26, 2019 – Last week Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel Dailey and Army Under Secretary Ryan McCarthy met with residents of Fort Belvoir, Fort Eustis and Fort Jackson to hear their concerns and observe housing issues in person.
On Friday, Feb. 22, Dailey traveled to Fort Belvoir, Virginia. After speaking directly with Soldiers and family members, he talked about their concerns with members of the housing-services office staff.
“We want service members to contact their chains of command with their housing maintenance concerns, and feel confident that their leaders will address those concerns with our privatized housing partners,” he said. “We are committed to our enduring obligation of caring for Soldiers and their families, which includes providing clean, safe and healthy homes.”
Dailey also discussed the need to revise existing business rules between tenants and landlords.
Last Thursday, Feb. 21, McCarthy conducted a similar fact-finding tour at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where he walked through houses and spoke with residents about possible concerns. He also met with Soldiers, leaders and housing staff to determine the best ways to improve housing conditions.
The following day, Feb. 22, the Under Secretary traveled to Fort Eustis, Virginia, to consult with residents and to gather information.
“We will stop at nothing to make sure that we are doing the right thing by our Soldiers,” he said. “It shouldn’t take us going to stand in someone’s kitchen to understand the extent of the problem.”
Last week’s meetings followed similar efforts by Army Secretary Mark Esper, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Dailey, who traveled to Fort Meade on Feb. 14 to speak with Soldiers, family members, installation leaders and the CEO of Corvias, the private company that manages housing on the installation.
The three Army senior leaders directed senior commanders to personally conduct town hall meetings, in collaboration with staff members from the privatized management companies, within 15 days. They also instructed them to complete installation-wide housing inspections within 30 days and to report the results up through the chain of command.
Esper, Milley and Dailey also met recently with senior executives from seven companies that manage privatized housing on Army installations. During the meeting, the executives made commitments to improve work-order transparency, to ensure sufficient numbers of trained staff are available to address housing problems in a timely manner, and to allow Soldiers to suspend their rent payments (BAH) if they believe that service is not satisfactory.
By Army Public Affairs