Marine Corps Housing Outreach Update
22 Apr 2019

Marine Corps Housing Outreach Update

PENTAGON, Washington, D.C. - As of April 22, the Marine Corps has contacted
more than 99 percent of its Marines, Sailors and families living in
privatized military housing and off-base civilian rental housing, and are
finalizing those remaining to ensure concerns and issues associated with
housing are properly assessed.
Marine Corps leaders, at all levels, are engaged on this issue because we
care about our Marines and their families.

"I have instructed Commanders to publish policies and take actions to ensure
our Marines, Sailors, and families have the living accommodations they
deserve," said Gen. Robert B. Neller, Commandant of the Marine Corps.
"Ultimately, military family housing is a leadership issue."

Since the Commandant of the Marine Corps directed commands to reach out to
their service members and families February 22nd, more than 91,300
individual service members have been engaged by their command. 6,964 (7.6%)
Marines requested home visits by their command, 7,730 (8.5%) requested phone
calls to explain the process for resolving their concerns, and 76,139 (84%)
declined a visit or call.

The Marine Corps chose to pursue the more time consuming process of
personally contacting Marines and Sailors outside of unit formations or
simple electronic outreach because we have a personal obligation to our
members and their families to ensure they have access to healthy, safe, and
secure living conditions. Commanders are as engaged in their members' lives
in garrison as they are while deployed to live up to our core value of
commitment.

This outreach effort accomplishes three important goals: (1) to raise our
awareness of each member's living conditions; (2) to identify maintenance or
safety issues affecting the residence (3) to ensure our members and their
families are aware of and understand the support processes and programs
available for their housing issues.

The majority of those contacted declined further assistance or visitation
from their commands for a variety of reasons. Of the nearly 7,000 homes
visited by commands, the trends the Marine Corps has identified through this
outreach are consistent with the issues identified earlier this year.

Issues include that maintenance concerns were not being addressed in a
timely manner, neither the public-private venture (PPV) partners nor the
Marine Corps were communicating with residents effectively enough, residents
were unaware of the existing issue resolution processes, and residents were
dissatisfied with the housing assignment and acceptance process.

Slow response times to maintenance requests and trends of poor customer
service noted by our members and their families are unacceptable. PPV
partners will maintain a 24-hour hotline to quickly and effectively respond
to maintenance requests. The Marine Corps will add quality assurance
personnel at military housing offices in order to address the housing
assignment and acceptance process. We are also in the preliminary stages of
scheduling an out-of-cycle, third-party survey to further identify housing
issues. Transparency and communication will be a priority throughout this
process.

Commands are aware of their role as advocates and their responsibility to
assist Marines and families experiencing issues with their housing. Taking
care of our Marines is a no-fail mission.

"Our leaders will remain engaged in all efforts to ensure we address issues
highlighted by our outreach efforts," said Neller.

The Marine Corps will continue to support Defense Department efforts to
improve the housing process by working alongside the other services to
address PPV concerns writ large.

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Captain Joseph Butterfield

The Official United States Marine Corps Public Website