The Army is carrying out plans to demolish a substantial amount of its government-owned housing units on Army bases by 2026, the Federal News Network reports. The service plans to get rid of all its inadequate housing over the next seven years. The push to eliminate Q3 and Q4 housing—the lowest level of Army housing—comes amid issues and public scrutiny of privatized housing on bases.
The Army is making an overall push to change the way it approaches housing after an August 2018 Reuters story exposed more than 1,000 children living on bases were exposed to lead paint, dust and other debris from privatized housing.
Since then, the Army pledged to inspect 40,000 houses built before 1978 for lead paint. The inspections could cost nearly $400 million.
Army Secretary Mark Esper recently met with Virginia Senator Mark Warner about the lead issue and provided an outline of the service's intent to develop an environmental hazards strategic engagement plan to mitigate health hazards in military housing. The Army's plans for remediation and inspection extend beyond just pre-1978 houses, as the Army released a survey to 10,000 residents living in Army-owned and Army-leased housing worldwide to identify areas in housing operations that need improvement.
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