Weekly Spotlight: Military Housing’s Mold Problem
Inside the effort to counter mold in military housing.
Delivered to our subscribers on Saturdays, the Weekly Spotlight is a roundup of POGO's latest work and announcements. Sign up to get this newsletter delivered to your inbox.
Mold is the “number one” issue in military family housing, according to military housing advocates. Despite more than 20,000 mold-related work orders for Army buildings alone, we don’t know how many military families are sickened by mold: The Pentagon doesn’t track that information.
But even with mounting disputes and lawsuits, and story after story of whole families falling sick with mold-related illnesses, it has been a battle to get some of the private housing companies who run military family housing to even acknowledge that there is a mold problem.
A lack in federal mold standards has allowed housing companies and the military to skirt the responsibility of mold testing and effective remediation, leaving thousands of families “trapped” in literally toxic living situations, as we explore in a new investigation.
The investigation is the third in our series exploring the state of military family housing across the United States. Read the first two investigations, examining the ‘rigged’ housing dispute process that favors landlords over military families and the lopsided, ironclad contracts that have allowed the privatized military family housing industry to ignore the well-being of their tenants with little to no accountability.
INVESTIGATION
“Operation Counter-Mold”: The Hidden Battle in Military Homes
Newly obtained documents reveal the scale of the military’s mold problem amid a gaping hole in federal standards.
INVESTIGATION
From Toxic Mold to Rampant Fraud: How Privatizing Military Housing Became a Nightmare for Soldiers
The Pentagon wanted to offload rising maintenance costs. America’s service members have paid the price ever since.
INVESTIGATION
Military Families Battle Rigged Housing Dispute Process
The formal dispute process for military family housing tends to favor the interests of housing companies and silences military families, housing advocates say.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“This money didn’t even get the normal level of oversight and accountability, because the people who were normally doing the oversight were stretched incredibly thin.”
Sean Moulton, Senior Policy Analyst, in Twin Cities Pioneer Press
Oversight in your inbox
Sent Saturdays