DoD hiring freeze

[Brett327]

So I suppose while the model may save the Government money, it doesn't really increase the quality of the product?

Isn't the point to do both though? Save money and increase quality?

No. The point was to not completely default on housing throughout the Shore Enterprise given the resourcing levels. I.E., we can’t afford the bill to keep this going properly. PPV was the method to accomplish that, and meet a defined standard of service. “Increasing the quality of the product” wasn’t part of the mandate.

 

[Brett327]

So what's the fix other than to do what the normal civilian world does- build a new house or take the old house down to studs and remodel/renovate it?

And why does the DoD expect that a 35 year old rental house to be habitable if they haven't invested in it?

I fear the real answer is to spend money.

This is like buying a new Pontiac Grand Am in 1990 and then complaining that it's a rusted out, broken down, money pit in 2025. Of course it is.

Why are we surprised and why don't we just build new housing every 15-20 years?

Who is the “we” you’re referencing? Govt isn’t responsible for renovations. Thats the whole point. That’s on the PPV partner, and they do updates/remodels and build new neighborhoods. Lots of very new, very nice units on Oahu.

Your posts sound a lot like a disgruntled E4 at the housing town hall who’s upset when his BAH goes up. You’re not grasping the big picture… and you can always vote with your feet.

 

[Swanee]

Who is the “we” you’re referencing? Govt isn’t responsible for renovations. Thats the whole point. That’s on the PPV partner, and they do updates/remodels and build new neighborhoods. Lots of very new, very nice units on Oahu.

Your posts sound a lot like a disgruntled E4 at the housing town hall who’s upset when his BAH goes up. You’re not grasping the big picture… and you can always vote with your feet.

The only PPV experience I had was in Kingsville, and that was because my family was forced to live there while I was a flight stud. Being forced to live in Kingsville was a contributing factor to my wife's multiple stays in South Texas inpatient mental hospitals.

I'm not a disgustled E-4. I'm an AF/ANG FGO, and I expect more out of our fellow FGOs and Flag officers than what they are doing to improve the living conditions of our military force.

It seems that you're okay with passing the buck and saying "It's not my problem anymore."

In the words of Joey Swole, " @Brett327 , you were/are a commander. You need to do better."

You know what the funny thing is? In the ANG, this isn't a problem. Everyone gets BAH and lives out in town.

Also, colleges don't seem to have this problem for their single students. It seems the military is the one that really fucks this one away and doesn't know how to fix it.

 

[WhiskeySierra6]

So how do we fix that?

Write and execute better contracts. I really is that simple. JBMDL has figured it out. No reason everyone else can't.

 

[Lawman]

Write and execute better contracts. I really is that simple. JBMDL has figured it out. No reason everyone else can't.

With regards to Fort Hood, I think the local economics are a huge factor in the problem.

The area of Texas that it’s sitting in had a covid started and unending influx of “Austin North” property expansion so now what was a 140k 3-4 bed house in Harker Heights is a 290-310k only a few years later. BAH has not really kept up with the fact that living in the Texas triangle the real estate and rental market is pricing out anything your jr/mid grade Soldiers can afford so they are all seeking on post housing if available.

Then simultaneously we’ve grown the parent division on location by 3 brigades worth of strength so that has to go somewhere further driving up prices and decreasing availability. Right now it’s not that there isn’t a desire to spend money on the post infrastructure, it’s that there is no available space to push people/units into while they do it, and no open property to simply build new stuff on.

 

[Brett327]

The only PPV experience I had was in Kingsville, and that was because my family was forced to live there while I was a flight stud.

Then you really don’t have a frame of reference for this discussion, do you? Perhaps flailing your arms vigorously when people with current subject matter expertise are trying to explain how things work to you isn’t the best course of action.

 

[WhiskeySierra6]

With regards to Fort Hood, I think the local economics are a huge factor in the problem.

The area of Texas that it’s sitting in had a covid started and unending influx of “Austin North” property expansion so now what was a 140k 3-4 bed house in Harker Heights is a 290-310k only a few years later. BAH has not really kept up with the fact that living in the Texas triangle the real estate and rental market is pricing out anything your jr/mid grade Soldiers can afford so they are all seeking on post housing if available.

Then simultaneously we’ve grown the parent division on location by 3 brigades worth of strength so that has to go somewhere further driving up prices and decreasing availability. Right now it’s not that there isn’t a desire to spend money on the post infrastructure, it’s that there is no available space to push people/units into while they do it, and no open property to simply build new stuff on.

I'm not intimately familiar with the specifics of the Ft Hood (Cavazos?) area but we had/have similar issues on Whidbey Island. I will say that, in general, a path to success is to find the open land (on or off base) , buy it if you don't own it, and lease it to a PPV company to build and operate. Doesn't help in the interim but really the only thing that would is an increase in BAH or COLA adjustment. Either way not a great place to be and definitely no easy quick solution.

 

[Faded Float Coat]

Seems there's a hiring freeze at all levels of DoD..... "...the general’s career seems to have become tangled up in broader suspicions about leaks and a mistrust of senior military officers that have defined much of Mr. Hegseth’s first six months on the job." The irony is all most too rich...