'We Don't Have Enough': Warren Grills Army Secretary About Housing Shortage For Military Families

around Senator Warren please so thank you Mr chairman our military families sacrifice a lot uh to serve their country and to keep Americans safe and one thing they shouldn't have to worry about is whether they're going to have a safe and affordable place to live we provide basic housing allowance and other assistance to make sure that military families have what they need but often that is just not enough for example the commander at Fort Carson in Colorado has 26,000 people working on post but he is able to offer only 3,100 family housing units what's available off base is often very expensive or requires a very long commute to get there all because we simply don't have enough housing for our people so secretary warmouth you oversee everything for the Army from Personnel to equipment do you think that meeting military families housing needs is important both for recruiting and retaining a strong military absolutely it's very important okay I agree with you and that's why Congress created the defense Community infrastructure program to help communities address and I'm going to read deficiencies in community infrastructure supportive of a military installation now DP provides grants to local governments for transportation building and other infrastructure projects secretary warmouth would you support using this program to build more housing in communities near bases in order to help us continue excuse me to attract the best and brightest to serve in our military um Senator Warren this is a program that's run by OSD and like you said it's generally grants to community so I know we we do use it for things like assessments of utilities and things like that in partnership with uh with communities where we have our installations uh you know I think additional Authority for housing is is always helpful the the real challenge though with housing is money uh you know at the end of day I understand that but you don't get what you don't ask for here so let's start with the idea of recognizing we are in a housing crisis and making this a priority in terms of getting funding in for housing for our military does that work for you yes and we're certainly trying to find you know for example with our privatized housing Partners we're trying to find more ways to help get money into that portfolio Okay I'm coming to them let me mention one other problem here I have concerns about the safety of the housing we provide to service members and their families now Congress recently adopted reforms to address housing deficiencies including requiring the dod to create a public complaint database to put a stop to government contractors acting like slum Lords and then hiding settlements when they get caught I got that bill passed five years ago five years and today DOD still does not have that database up and operational even worse these government contractors continue to muzzle military families by requiring them to sign non-is closure agreements so there is no record of the mold or the broken windows or the water damage or the rats or any other unsafe housing conditions that military families are forced to put up with secretary warmouth do you think it is appropriate for government contractors to ask military families to stay silent in return for those companies meeting their basic obligations to provide safe housing we encourage our soldiers and their am to use the dispute resolution process well the part I'm worried about are the non-disclosure agreements that come out of that the ndas what what I would say about that Senator is I think you know we we appreciate the provision that you put in that basically requires that their soldiers have 10 days before they're even asked to sign an NDA and what we do is offer a lawyer that the Army will pay for to advise our soldiers and family members of their rights before they contemplate signing an NDA I appreciate that that's better than it used to be but it's not as good as it ought to be last year's ndaa put in restrictions on the use of non-disclosure agreements I just think we're going to have to set a much brighter line no landlord should be able to make military families sign ndas in exchange for providing basic housing period no ndas on that before I close I want to say one other thing and I'll just say it quickly and that's to you General George there is a significant disconnect between Army rhetoric and action when you were confirmed you told this committee quote I will make every effort to honor our commitment by providing quality Barracks to our soldiers sounded great but on your unfunded priorities list the list of things that you were not willing to fight for for funding in your basic budget right near the bottom of your unfunded priorities list is money to repair the barracks in Fort De Massachusetts you can't stand up and say you care about housing your people and then not make housing repairs a part of your base budget there's no surprise here it it was deteriorating and deteriorating over a long period of time so I want to work with the Army on this I know I'm over time but we got to stop playing games on this and follow through we have to deliver better housing for our people thank you thank you

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Length: 5min 58sec (358 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 28 2024