A New Financing Plan Could Speed Up Renovations Of 16,000 Army Homes On Base
Speaker 1: 00:00 The companies that manage most of the housing on us. Military bases have been under fire for poor maintenance, but one of the companies has unveiled an unusual plan. It says could help J price of the American Homefront project reports from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. This one's three bedrooms, two baths, Speaker 2: 00:18 had their fuller works for that company, which is called core V. Speaker 3: 00:21 so this wall actually comes down, so it opens up the whole kitchen area that has an Eden bar in the new layout. It makes the kitchen larger as well. Speaker 2: 00:29 Vacant ranch-style duplex, she showing me in a Fort brag neighborhood is older but doesn't show significant wear and tear. In fact, it looks like it's ready for someone to move in, but the inside is about to be gutted. Speaker 3: 00:42 It's just dated. So the tiles in the bathrooms, they're small. They're like built in the 1960s. So, um, we're renovating and making those larger. We've taken some of these floor plans and um, added a bedroom, 280 Speaker 2: 00:58 homes on Fort Bragg or getting the same treatment while several thousand more will get new heating and cooling systems and other improvements. Similar upgrades will be done on six other army bases where core Venus manages housing. So approximately 16,000 homes are going to receive some level of energy upgrade and information upgrades. John poseurs owns the company. He apologized to the Senate hearing earlier this year for what he admitted were unacceptable conditions and some of the housing by information upgrades. He means sophisticated systems that continually collect information on things like the heating and cooling systems, which could help the company know when maintenance is needed before expensive repairs are required. He and a group of outside lenders are pumping $325 million into the new program. And here's the unusual part. He says the program will pay for itself. Core will be able to pay the money back from the savings that will result. Speaker 2: 01:56 So we have an estimated $300 million in savings over the next 30 years in energy efficiencies. And a portion of that will come from lowering the maintenance costs. More predictive maintenance is far less expensive than emergency maintenance troops who don't live in barracks get a housing allowance, most use it to live off base, but for those who use base housing, the allowance goes to companies like vias. It covers all housing and utility costs, but per certain said, the army reduced the housing allowance about the same time it's shrank by thousands of troops. After the peak of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, occupancy rates fell, the company's income fell and he said it made a mistake by scaling back at spending on renovations. And once you, you kind of take your eye off that ball, now you're playing catch up. And I think what we're doing here by making this large investment is trying to get ahead of the curve again instead of always playing from behind the game. The number of troops is up, which is helping. He said one brag resident Diane Woodrill said the benefits of renovated housing aren't just about getting the company back on track. There are plus to families like hers Speaker 4: 03:10 as a military spouse. And going to live on base. I want to snag up on that. Either tell me it's been renovated or Hey, we've got brand new construction, we've got no mold issues, no bug issues or anything like that. Like you've cleared out every issue. There could be Speaker 2: 03:25 her own two bedroom home where she lives with her husband and their four year old son isn't going to get the major renovations because it's not old enough. But she serves on a resident advisory group that was formed to give core vias feedback on what it can do to improve core Venus's new approach might start a trend. Patterns had some of the companies that manage housing on other bases have asked him for advice. The new program was unrelated to hundreds of other downs, new home construction and renovations that the company already had planned as part of the normal cycle of its 50 year agreement with the Pentagon. This is J price reporting. Speaker 1: 04:01 This story was produced by the American Homefront project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans funding comes from the corporation for public broadcasting. Speaker 5: 04:14 [inaudible].
