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Military families face problems in private housing, study finds

A new report sheds light on several problems with private military housing nationwide.

TAMPA, Fla. — Private military housing all over the country has had reports of mold, pests and structural problems.

It includes MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.

A new study released Wednesday by the Military Family Advisory Network had 16,000 responses. It found 55 percent of the respondents had negative experiences with their corporate landlords. 

The report details how widespread the problems are and provides recommendations to fix it. 

Here were the results of the overall opinions about private military housing:

Very Positive: 3.24 percent

Positive: 12.66 percent

Neutral: 28.81 percent

Negative: 35.36 percent

Very Negative: 19.93%

At MacDill Air Force Base, the satisfaction rate is 2.267 on a 5-point scale. A score of 5 indicates a "very positive" score.

Here is the percentage of respondents at MacDill who experienced issues with:

Maintenance, repairs, or remediation: 60 percent

Mold: 54 percent

Environmental illness: 18 percent

Climate control: 17 percent

Structural concerns: 16 percent

Other issues at MacDill AFB include basic allowance for housing, poor quality materials, appliance replacement and management.

The report recommends several solutions, including:

  • Creating a "Tenant Bill of Rights," which the Department of Defense started working on in March.
  • Creating a Registry of Health to detail the problems caused by poor living conditions.
  • The Army is already doing that, but the report recommends that the Department of Defense extends it to all branches of the military.

More coverage on poor living conditions found in private military housing:

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