A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday called for the Defense Department to address “poor living conditions” at military houses for service members and their families, pointing to particular concerns with private companies that oversee housing with what the congressional group considers to be unfair contracts.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, lawmakers said the military’s “decades-old, terrible deals with private companies to provide military housing” has failed service members and their families.
“The stress and uncertainty that military families face with the multiple moves and transitions between locations and assignments that the military requires is amplified and worsened by systemic housing problems,” they wrote in the letter. “Military families should not lose their right to a safe, healthy home, or the ability to seek redress, simply because they live on-base.”
The letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) Tim Kaine (Va.) and Jon Ossoff (Ga.), along with Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Del. James Moylan (R-Guam).
Lawmakers have for years raised concerns about the state of military housing and taken steps to address the persistent issue. The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes an increase to the basic allowance for housing, along with other efforts to increase the livelihood of U.S. service members, including a major pay raise for junior enlisted members.
The 2024 NDAA also directed the Pentagon to create a work committee, Military Family Readiness Working Group for Military Housing, to allow military families and senior Defense Department leaders to review and make recommendations related to housing.
But Congress remains concerned that none of these steps is addressing the longstanding issue of military housing. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report last year found the Pentagon is failing to maintain good living conditions and that thousands of service members are living below standards. The report prompted 17 lawmakers to demand the Defense Department address the issues.
According to a Defense Department response to Congress, in 2023, there were 4,588 reports of mold in privatized housing from the Air and Space Forces.
In the letter this week, lawmakers cited a recent Project On Government Oversight report that found service members have been living with conditions like toxic mold but have struggled to get the issues fixed because of restrictive contracts with private companies.
They argued that the Pentagon entered into agreements with private companies that makes it nearly impossible to terminate a contract and address concerns about tenant rights or environmental issues.
Service members can also be trapped by a federal enclave doctrine that prevents them from suing, they said. State laws strengthening tenant rights that are adopted after the state transfers land to the federal government for military housing no longer applies at the U.S. base.
The lawmakers said that loophole creates a “shield from responsibility” for corporate landlords as they argued the Defense Department is “trapped by long-standing, substandard agreements with private companies.”
“All these factors combine to create a nightmarish military housing experience for service members and their families,” the group wrote.