LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (ACCNS) -- A recent episode of the popular television show Trading Spaces gave two designers $100,000 to renovate a couple rooms in two houses over two days.
Air Combat Command will do something a bit more ambitious over the next few years: spend about a billion dollars to renovate or replace all of its inadequate housing.
Were going to fix all 62 percent of ACC houses that are below the Air Force standard, said Lt. Col. Mary Matthews Hains, chief of housing programs for the ACC Civil Engineer Directorate.
She shares the monumental task of managing the robust command housing upgrade program with Lt. Col. Jani McCreary, chief of housing privatization.
Using traditional military construction as well as financial investment and property management by private developers, the two officers and their staffs are developing and managing plans to deliver thousands of new and renovated homes to ACCs military families over the next five to ten years, said Col. Kevin Rumsey, chief of ACCs civil engineer programs division.
The aggressive drive to bring Air Force housing up to current private sector residential standards is tightly linked to retention.
The Air Force believes retention improves with a good home for our families, Colonel Matthews Hains said.
Moving everyone off base into the local community to access newer homes, however, isnt a viable option. Some personnel are required to live on base for mission reasons.
In addition, many Air Force families like to live in on-base communities for social ties with other military families, access to on-base activities and services and the security and support families have while the military member is on deployments.
Finally, some locations dont have enough affordable homes that meet AF standards in the local community.
The current Air Force standards for military family housing are based on commercial residential building standards found across the U.S. today. Modern homes have increased in size and amenities considerably since the vast majority of the Air Forces housing was built, said Colonel Matthews Hains. The Defense Department recognized this disparity between commercial and government standards and has consequently increased minimum requirements for housing construction to keep pace with the civilian housing market.
The new AF standards provide a significant improvement from what many military families are used to seeing in on-base housing areas. The benchmark for new military family housing at Air Force installations includes two-car garages for all detached homes, and one- or two-car garages for attached homes.
Although floor space varies by rank, all square footage in the new homes will increase as much as 28 percent on average. For instance, junior enlisted families who qualify for a two-bedroom home will get around 1,080 square feet and junior enlisted families who qualify for a five-bedroom home will get about 1,850 square feet.
These adjustments in military family housing construction standards are good news for military members and their families, but even better news is in the making. Under the AF Housing Privatization program, which capitalizes on the experience of private land developers and property managers, military housing units and neighborhoods will be constructed with the types of amenities expected in comparable off-base developments, said Colonel McCreary. Under the privatization contracts, the private developers are encouraged to build as many amenities into their project proposals as is financially feasible.
That includes playgrounds, clubhouses, pools, and weight rooms, Colonel McCreary noted.
These new military neighborhoods will be much like apartment complexes or homeowners associations found in local communities across the US.
We dont just go for low cost, Colonel McCreary added, we go for the best value we can afford. We get more homes or more quality in homes with this plan.
The goal for ACC is to privatize about 60 percent of the 20,600 homes in the Commands inventory by 2008. The privatization contracts, established as leases for homes and land on or near Air Force installations and lasting for up to 50 years, rely on revenue streams based on the military residents monthly basic housing allowance.
Developers are motivated to provide houses and neighborhoods that are attractive to the military member in order to achieve high occupancy rates.
Although 2008 is the target year for the majority of Air Force housing to be privatized, Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, has already opened new privatized housing. The project incorporates many neighborhood amenities including pools, clubhouses, and playgrounds.
Other ACC bases are well along in the privatization process to include Beale, Cannon, Shaw, and Offutt, and ACC is still managing Moody AFB. Not far behind are Nellis, Langley, Holloman and Barksdale AFBs.
As one might expect, unlike Trading Spaces, this ambitious program cant be compressed into a two-day self-help effort, especially when it involves over 11,000 homes. The phasing of improvements over the next several years will ensure that an adequate number of homes continue to be available for members seeking to live in military family housing areas.
When all of the improvements are complete, ACC houses and neighborhoods will boast the amenities and features found in local communities across America, providing military families with the higher standard homes they deserve.
ACCs civil engineer, Brig. Gen. Pat Burns, summarizes the billion dollar housing effort as, "Great news for our ACC and AF families!"
USAF. (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez)