{"id":60964,"date":"2022-02-17T21:22:16","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T21:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/02\/17\/military-tenants-were-promised-a-database-for-housing-complaints-theyre-still-waiting\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T13:12:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:12:39","slug":"military-tenants-were-promised-a-database-for-housing-complaints-theyre-still-waiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/pay-benefits\/2022\/02\/17\/military-tenants-were-promised-a-database-for-housing-complaints-theyre-still-waiting\/","title":{"rendered":"Military tenants were promised a database for housing complaints. They\u2019re still waiting."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Defense officials say they are running into roadblocks in creating a publicly available database for complaints about military privatized housing units, as required by law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The publicly available database would allow tenants of housing units to file a complaint about issues with their housing unit for inclusion in the database. Information is expected to include the name of the installation, the name of the landlord responsible for the housing unit, and a description of problem they are having. It won\u2019t include personally identifiable information, but it would be available to anyone, including other military families<\/a>, military leaders and privatized housing landlords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The database requirement was one of the reforms enacted by Congress to address pervasive issues with mold, water intrusion, rodent and insect infestation and other problems brought to light by military families<\/a> in 2019. In some cases, families had difficulty getting landlords to fix the problems, and their concerns weren\u2019t being heard by their military leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That complaint repository hasn\u2019t been established, said DoD spokesman Peter Hughes. \u201cGiven budgetary, contract and Privacy Act issues, it will take time before the department is able to establish such a database,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Feb. 15 hearing on nominees for some key Pentagon positions, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pressed Christopher Lowman to get the database done in 2022. Lowman has been tapped for assistant secretary of defense for sustainment, the principal logistics official in DoD senior management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a database, a complaint database. This is not rocket science,\u201d Warren said, during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in year three of people who want to be able to tell you about things like rats and insects and black mold,\u201d she said. \u201cI would think that the military would want to know about this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The database requirement was one of the reforms to the military housing privatization initiative that was included in the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren cited a Pentagon inspector general report that said DoD was dragging its feet on two major reforms \u2014 the public complaint database for tenants and the tenant bill of rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The senator pressed Lowman to make a commitment that DoD will stand up the complaint database this year, but he stopped short of making it. The responsibility for housing has been removed from the portfolio of duties of the position, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Air Force Lt. Col. Derek Bright moves his family of seven back into their home at Fort Belvoir, Va., Oct. 11, The family was displaced for 87 days while their home was undergoing mold remediation. (Ben Murray\/Staff)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a Feb. 10 memo, the deputy secretary of defense re-created the position of assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment. It had been eliminated in 2018 DoD reorganization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Lowman did commit to working with the new assistant secretary for energy, installations and environment for a \u201cdeliberate transition of resources, as well as the policies and personnel, to make sure that \u2026 the organization makes progress on this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks\u2019 memo designated Paul Cramer, currently principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment, to serve as the interim assistant secretary until another person is designated or the president appoints someone to the position and the Senate confirms.<\/p>\n\n\n\t