The Air Force has given a 90-day warning to Balfour Beatty Communities to develop a privatized military housing remediation plan for Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., The Oklahoman reported Wednesday.
Acting Air Force Secretary Matt Donovan said at a Tuesday news conference the service sent a “letter of concern to Balfour Beatty giving them 90 days to come up with a comprehensive plan to fix all the problems” including construction, mold and other issues.
Assistant Air Force Secretary John Henderson, installations chief, said the Tinker AFB problems are “more complex” than at other bases, according to the report.
“We’ve been working for three years to address some of these problems,’’ Henderson said.
Privatized military housing problems surfaced last year in investigative reports by Reuters, as On Base reported.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said at the news conference he initially thought the problems were limited to Tinker AFB, but learned they exist at installations nationwide, according to The Oklahoman report.
The committee has held two hearings featuring testimony from residents, contractors and military officials.
Inhofe said he thought most of the issues had been exposed but he recently heard that some homes didn’t have firewalls and others had asbestos, prompting him to wonder “what else could be out there that we don’t know about today,” the report said.
The Senate’s fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes about $300 million for military oversight of privatized housing and contains provisions for more resident support, including a Tenant Bill of Rights, as On Base has reported.
Photo by Bryan Terry/The Oklahoman