Safe, adequate housing gets highest priority

Airman, Oct, 2004 by David A. Jablonski

WASHINGTON -- Caring for Air Force families is the highest priority, and one way to reinforce that commitment is to provide safe, adequate and affordable housing, said the service's senior military leader.

In a recent Site Picture, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper detailed his and Air Force Secretary Dr. lames G. Roche's commitment to improving living standards. It was published after General Jumper and Nelson. F. Gibbs testified before the House Appropriations Committee subcommittee on military construction to provide budget details for fiscal 2005. Mr. Gibbs is the assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment and logistics.

The budget request reflects an increase of more than $180 million from the fiscal 2004 budget for family housing. For fiscal 2005, the $847 million requested for overall housing investment will provide more than 2,200 new units at 16 bases, improve more than 1,300 units at six bases and support privatization of more than 6,800 units at six bases. An additional $864 million will pay for maintenance, operation, utilities and leases for family housing. Since 2000, the average out-of-pocket expenses for Airmen dropped from 18.9 percent of the cost of housing to 3.5 percent today through increases in base allowance for housing. Officials hope to eliminate these expenses by next year.

Officials are also targeting inadequate housing on base through the use of partnerships with private developers and military construction projects.

"These partnership arrangements allow us to provide quality homes more quickly than we can through traditional military constructions," General Jumper said. "As of today, we have already built 4,934 new homes through privatization. By 2007, we will have eliminated all inadequate housing units in the [continental Halted States], and two years later, we will have eliminated inadequate units overseas. In cases where privatization is neither feasible nor cost effective, we will use traditional military construction programs. We also tripled our investment in Air Force-owned housing and improved the size standards to ensure our on-base homes are comparable in size and quality to modern homes available in the local community."

General Jumper also said he's equally committed to providing a quality living environment for young unaccompanied Airmen.

"From fiscal 1996 through this year, we have spent $1.3 billion in military construction money for new dormitories, and we plan to spend an additional $735 million over the next five years," the general said. "With this money, we will eliminate our room deficit and develop an improved room standard called 'Dorms-4-Airmen.'"

This design provides a larger living and sleeping area, and a private bathroom. The new design connects four living and sleeping areas to a large living room and kitchen, with washer and dryer access.

Improvements are also planned for technical training school dormitories where there is currently a dorm deficit of more than 29 percent, with 40 percent of existing dorms having three students in rooms designed for two. This deficit should be eliminated by 2009, as new dorms are built each year for the next five years. Eight new dorms have been built in the last five years, and three new dorms are under construction.

"Providing adequate housing allows Airmen to focus on the mission, knowing that their families have a safe place to live," General Jumper said. "I am extremely proud of the progress we have made in our housing program."