THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 9, 1995 TAG: 9505090244
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Embarrassed by the deterioration of base housing in Hampton Roads and dozens of other military communities, the Pentagon detailed plans Monday to use up to $1 billion in public money to stimulate billions more in private investment on homes for service families.
``The military housing we have today is in terrible shape,'' Secretary of Defense William Perry said.
Monday's announcement did not indicate where the new incentives will be tried. Decisions about that will not be made until the proposals have cleared Congress, said Joshua Gotbaum, assistant secretary of defense for economic security.
But senior officials said the Army's top priority is to improve housing around Fort Hood, Texas, while the Navy's most acute needs are in the high-priced San Diego market.
Perry said the average base home is 33 years old and about two-thirds of the 375,000 units in the Pentagon's inventory are substandard. In Hampton Roads, the Navy estimates that more than 800 of its 5,000 housing units are inadequate.
Replacing or refurbishing so many homes the normal way, with projects financed entirely by the taxpayers, would cost about $20 billion. And at current rates of spending on military housing, it would take more than 30 years to complete the work, Gotbaum said.
To get the job done within 10 years, Perry and Gotbaum offered legislation Monday that would:
Allow the services to relax regulations on the size of military housing units. Those regulations generally specify smaller rooms than private developers routinely build; Gotbaum said builders have been reluctant to do projects with such small rooms, fearing they won't be attractive to civilians if the military market disappears.
Allow the military to guarantee occupancy rates in privately developed homes and apartments or to pay the cost of security deposits on apartments for military families.
Permit the services to lease or give away federal lands in exchange for a developer's agreement to construct and/or operate military housing.
Permit the Pentagon to provide loan or mortgage guarantees and/or mortgage insurance to induce developers to take on military housing projects.
Perry sought Monday to link the proposals to the oft-stated determination of Republican congressional leaders to improve the military's readiness for battle.
``There is an iron logic from housing to readiness,'' he asserted, citing studies that tie the military's success in retaining good troops to the quality of the housing and other services provided for military families.
``They say in the Army that you enlist soldiers, you re-enlist families,'' Perry said. The thousands of dollars spent to train troops for the military's technical jobs are largely wasted if those troops leave the service because of disgruntlement over their quality of life, he said.
But Gotbaum conceded that the initiatives announced Monday will do nothing for unmarried enlisted personnel, whose barracks homes are typically the oldest and most run-down housing in the military.
Indeed, Perry noted that thousands of single sailors don't even have a barracks room to call home. Even when homeported, he said, they typically live in their shipboard bunks. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Defense Secretary William Perry: ``The military housing we have
today is in terrible shape.''
KEYWORDS: BASE HOUSING MILITARY HOUSING by CNB