Military Families Endure 'Ongoing Mistreatment' From Largest Private Housing Landlord, Senate Probe Reveals

A private military housing landlord deemed one of the largest in the U.S. has continued to disregard the health, safety, and wellbeing of military families living in its facilities despite admitting its deficiencies, neglect, and fraudulent activities from 2013 to 2019.

The report prepared by Sen. Jon Ossoff and Sen. Ron Johnson for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations revealed that thousands of military families are still enduring the "ongoing mistreatment" of Balfour Beatty Communities. Some 150,000 of these families live in private residences managed by the landlord across 26 states, but the Senate's probe focused on the living conditions in Georgia's Fort Gordon and the Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.

The findings stated that homes in these bases remain in a state of disrepair as of December 2021, and Balfour Beatty Communities has not been fulfilling its obligation, per CNN. The neglect is similar to the conduct exemplified by the landlord when it admitted to its shortcomings before.

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A Promise Left Unfulfilled

In 2019, Balfour Beatty co-president Richard Taylor promised that it would prioritize the health, safety, and wellbeing of its residents. Yet, the residents testified before the Senate and said that they still have molds, leaks, and other environmental hazards in their homes. With the help of their physicians, some of the residents also testified that they had developed health issues like eczema or asthma, which their living conditions have aggravated.

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Balfour Beatty Communities was guilty of committing major fraud against the U.S. Armed Forces. It lied about its service to military families while pocketing "millions of dollars in performance bonuses." For instance, it omitted some reports on a house's history, making it difficult for the next military family to move in to verify if repairs and treatments were done to the property.

FBI Deputy Director Paul M. Abbate said that the landlord prioritized greed and profit over their obligations to the country's defenders even as Balfour Beatty Communities agreed to pay a $65-million fine after the DOJ case.

As this court battle took place last year, a family in Fort Gordon submitted a repair request to fix a water leak, but the landlord sat on it for over three months. The leak was not fixed until February 2022.

Another military family moved into a Balfour home in November 2021 and discovered molds in the vent. Their daughter suffered persistent respiratory issues and fevers. Their repair request was not addressed until three months later.

The privatization of military housing facilities was decided in the mid-1990s with a vision that it would provide affordable, reliable, and dependable living conditions for the men and women in uniform and their kids. However, the program has been perennially besieged with problems on top of the sacrifices that military families make for the country.

Banning Balfour Beatty Communities

Because of the ongoing negligence, Armed Forces Housing Advocate founder Rachel Christian said that Balfour Beatty Communities needs to be "properly held accountable" or banned from receiving contracts from the government. Christian told USA Today that it's not only the Armed Forces who are on the losing end but the servicemen and their children.

However, the landlord has defended its practices by saying that Balfour Beatty Communities has made strides in improving its services, prioritizing the needs of the residents, and preparing the homes for the next families moving in. A spokesperson also said that the Senate report painted the company unfairly and inaccurately and even reached for some corrections to be made before it was released to the public.

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