When Col. Dexter Nunnally took Command in 2019, housing was at the top of his priority list.
It did not take long to rally the troops around this issue. Representatives from several directorates stepped up to log complaints and concerns, volunteers went door-to-door conducting customer satisfaction surveys, and to follow-up on completed repairs.
After a little over a year of actively working with RCI Housing, owned by Balfour Beatty Communities, several improvements have been made and future enhancements are in the works.
The Army hired an independent company to evaluate the satisfaction of residents living in privatized housing. CEL and Associates, Inc., a real estate consulting company based in Los Angeles, California, conducted a survey last fall. Fort Detrick residents residing in Army RCI Housing, were sent surveys via email. Out of the 320 emails, 78 surveys came back, a response rate of 23.8 percent. The survey period was November 2019 to December 2019.
The Army released the CEL survey results in June 2020. The survey evaluates the overall portfolio performance of three Satisfaction Indexes: Satisfaction Index, Business Success Factors, and Individual Questions. Seven properties took part in the survey. Fort Detrick's overall score was 78.6 out of 100. Fort Detrick had an overall 23.8 percent response from the residents concerning the condition of their homes. The installation's scores for property satisfaction increased 1.9 of a point to 77.5, and service satisfaction increased by 4.3 of a point to 75.7.
The survey results show the properties at Fort Detrick Overall Satisfaction Index of Resident satisfaction with both the service provided. The physical property scores went up by property 12.9 of a point to 90.6 for Stark-Doughten, 13.2 of a point to 85.3 for Monocacy Meadows-Nallin Farm properties.
The Success Factor pertains to the perception of how willing or receptive the on-site personnel is to solving a particular problem; scores went up 1.6 of a point to 75.4.
For Responsiveness and Follow-Through, scores went up 3.8 of a point to 71.0. For Quality of Maintenance Service, the score went up 6.7 of a point to 80.2 from the prior score.
The Command recognizes there is still work to do with our partners. When our families identify a problem and a need for improvement, the team works to ensure they are meeting and improving the quality of life for all residents. An area the Command is focusing on with Balfour Beatty Communities is to improve the renewal intention rate. The score was up 3.3 of a point to 67 out of 100 of the likelihood of residents renewing their leases.
The Garrison Commander, housing team, and BBC, work diligently to ensure every comment and concern that residents have is addressed in a timely manner. The Garrison Commander conducts weekly meetings with BBC to ensure concerns are addressed and that the residents receive the best possible service. Feedback from residents is extremely valuable for the Garrison Commander to measure and improve the quality of housing at Fort Detrick and Glen Haven apartments.
One of the main concerns with the Fort Detrick residents is the quality of drinking water. The Garrison is aware of the tap water concerns and how it affects our community's homes and is committed to providing our customers with safe and reliable drinking water. The Directorate of Public Works tests the water supplies consistently to ensure the drinking water meets or exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency and Maryland Department of Environment standards. Fort Detrick has also initiated a $560,000 water filtration project to add filters in the main lines to remove discoloration that may cause residents' concerns. We expect project completion within a year.
Additionally, we received $9.9 million in funding during FY19 to survey and upgrade the installation's sewer lines. In FY20 funding for an additional 9.9 million was funded to replace water lines to housing. The design phase of this project has begun and is expected to last approximately 8 months. In past years, the topic of brown water continued into discussions at town halls. With the approval of these two projects, this issue is expected to be resolved.
The Overall Resident Satisfaction Indexes dropped by 2.7 points from the previous year. The Garrison Commander understands the satisfaction levels decreased slightly in some areas, and the families have identified areas in need of improvement. We want to ensure the residents understand the Garrison Command is not complacent when our families identify and communicate a problem.
In the barracks, one project in particular will save the Army thousands of dollars and satisfy residents. In August, the Directorate of Public Works crews began a project replacing a current two-pipe chiller and boiler system with Packaged Terminal Air Conditioners in all five barracks, totaling 240 rooms. The project will continue into fiscal year 2021.
The current system, installed in 1996, has reached its life expectancy. The system is costly to replace, and each season needs to be switched from cooling to heating. When significant repair is required, the centrally located heating and cooling equipment is shut down, causing multiple buildings to be without air conditioning or heat. As you can imagine, this is not what residents want to hear during peak summer and winter months.
The new PTAC units enable each tenant to control the temperature in their rooms. Units are easily accessible for service technicians to perform routine maintenance and repairs. If a PTAC unit fails, a replacement is available at a low cost.
The project will save over $21,000 in energy costs. The current two-pipe system peak costs $45,600.00 for one barracks building per year. The new system will reduce that to $24,336 per year.
Lastly, leadership held a quarterly town hall for residents of Fort Detrick housing in September. One at Fort Detrick and one at Glen Haven Apartments and Townhomes in Silver Spring, Maryland. Both events took place virtually and included Garrison Commander, Col. Dexter Nunnally, Command Sgt. Maj. Jason Gusman and leadership from Balfour Beatty Communities. At Glen Haven, residents continued to express concerns regarding the amount of trash that is not making it to dumpster areas and lack of compliance by residents to utilize the trash valet service now provided to residents. Col. Nunnally once again stressed the
importance of taking pride in our neighborhoods and homes.
Another topic that appeared several times was when active duty are recently promoted and receive an increase in their monthly BAH amount, that new BAH amount is going directly to the privatized housing landlord even though they didn’t sign a new lease.
Residents were told a privatized military housing project income stream is based on BAH. For most projects, Service Members pay rent directly to the developer in accordance with a tenant lease agreement. When a Service Member pays his or her BAH as rent, that typically includes refuse collection, water and sewer, common area ground and facilities care. In other words, as the BAH comes in as rent, that BAH goes out to pay the costs associated with running the privatized homes, including a small profit for the privatized housing provider. In that manner, these projects essentially fund themselves.
The Department of Defense wants market forces to drive contractor performance. This means that the primary enforcement mechanism is the ability of the Service Member to choose where to live.
Therefore, when a Service Member gets promoted and, as a result of that promotion, the amount of the Service Member’s BAH increases, the rent also increases.
Service Members who have a legal question pertaining to BAH, the terms of their lease or housing issues generally can consult (at no cost) with the Fort Detrick Office of Staff Judge Advocate, Client Services Section at (301) 619-2221.
Other topics such as replacing street lights, kids unattended while on playgrounds and who to contact in housing were also brought to the attention of leadership.
As this year continues to be one for the records, we continue to keep housing a priority. Our goal is to make Army housing the first choice of residents. This is done through transparency and teamwork.
Thank you everyone for your contributions and candidness throughout the entire process. Together we will get this right.
| Date Taken: | 10.01.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 10.01.2020 10:42 |
| Story ID: | 379962 |
| Location: | FREDERICK , MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 109 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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