U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) joined a bipartisan call that the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) ensure all military families living in DOD housing receive protections guaranteed by the DOD tenant bill of rights required under the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
“Congress did not intend for military housing companies’ compliance with the tenant bill of rights and other important provisions of the 2020 NDAA to be optional,” wrote Sen. Tillis and four of his colleagues in a Nov. 14 letter sent to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. “Congress put mandates in place to protect military families, and DOD must use all tools at its disposal to enforce these mandates.”
Despite the NDAA requirements, five private military housing providers identified in a recent DOD Inspector General (IG) report are still failing to implement key rights for military families, according to the senators’ letter, which Sen. Tillis co-led with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
The companies — Boyer Hill Military Housing, Burlington Capital Real Estate, JL Properties, Miller-Valentine Group, and United Communities — continue to refuse to provide service members and their families with their homes’ maintenance histories, the right to enter a dispute resolution process, and the right to withhold basic housing allowance payments to the landlord while a dispute resolution process is ongoing, according to their letter.
“The vast majority of the military housing providers have voluntarily agreed to uphold these rights, and it is time to address the remaining bad actors,” wrote Sen. Tillis and his colleagues. “Allowing military families’ rights to be subject to the whims of private military housing contractors creates an unacceptable level of inequity.”
The lawmakers urged DOD to exercise its authority, including any available change clauses and rights to cure, to bring these companies into compliance and provide the military families that are paying them rent with the full suite of protections offered by the DOD tenant bill of rights.
And, they wrote, if these contractors continue to refuse to provide such rights, then the DOD should exercise its right to terminate the agreements.
Additionally, the senators noted that the DOD IG report also found numerous other military housing requirements under the FY 2020 NDAA that haven’t yet been implemented, and said they are concerned that the DOD doesn’t have the data and information it needs to oversee how tenants’ rights are being protected.
“This lack of data makes it impossible for DOD to conduct all required housing program oversight and ensure that service members and their families have access to safe and clean housing,” they wrote.
The senators also are concerned that DOD’s “unnecessary” application of controlled unclassified information policies and related agreements with private military housing contractors hinders oversight and accountability.
“Most recently,” they wrote, “the new DOD IG report redacted companies’ explanations for their failure to comply with the law. Military families deserve to know why DOD continues to tolerate inconsistent implementation of their rights to live in a safe home. The explanations provided in the CUI version of the DOD IG report should be made available to the public.”
Sen. Tillis and his colleagues requested that Austin answer more than a dozen questions by Dec. 14 regarding the DOD’s legal agreements with private military housing companies, as well as the status of the department’s negotiations with the five companies that haven’t fully implemented the DOD tenant bill of rights, among others.