The U.S. military is investing $400 million for “immediate work” on improving and renovating aging, faulty and dilapidated troop housing.
That investment is part of a $1.2 billion funding plan to overhaul barracks across the services, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a video posted to social media last week. The video was an update on the Barracks Task Force the Department of Defense set up in October to address widespread issues in military housing. In early October Hegseth announced that he directed the task force to come up with a barracks investment plan and then released details which included bringing in more private contractors.
After the Barracks Task Force was created in October it was given 30 days to come up with a new investment plan to address urgent issues in military housing. As part of the investment plan released last week, the Barracks Task Force is giving garrison commanders more than $400 million to direct what Hegseth called “immediate work.” Another $800 million will be spent on “critical” barracks renovation. The plan was released as the Pentagon is currently in the middle of carrying out inspections on housing across the services.
The 2023 Government Accountability Office report found several serious problems with quality of life in barracks, across the board. Hegseth highlighted some issues raised, including limited hot water, nonfunctioning fire alarms and mold.
“Nobody wants to live in these kinds of conditions,” Hegseth said.
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So far the new task force and the investments have made some immediate material improvements, Hegseth said. In the last month, it helped pay for new furnishings and mattresses at 81 barracks as well as new security systems for 13 barracks, among others, impacting more than 10,000 troops.
The large investment comes after several funds for housing were diverted to other projects this year. Those include the Pentagon pulling money meant for Army and Marines barracks to use in operations and construction projects along the southern border. Robert Evans, the founder of the Hots & Cots app that tracks barracks issues who has also attended meetings with the barracks task force, said that the Pentagon is “treating this as a real priority.”
Evans said that he gets why troops might be skeptical of the plan now. Issues with barracks “spanned multiple administrations and the backlog of maintenance is in the billions of dollars,” he said.
“We’re not going to see major fixes overnight, but we should start seeing meaningful, incremental improvements,” Evans continued. “The important thing is that the work is underway, and service members’ experiences are finally being reflected in the actions being taken.”
So far the Department of Defense has completed “wall to wall” assessments at housing for the Air Force, Space Force, Navy, Marine Corps and the 18th Airborne Division, Hegseth said. Assessments for the Army, the Reserves and National Guard’s barracks are set to be finished by the end of January.
