The goals of faster and cheaper military housing may have been achieved through privatization, but problems including unreliable builders and an unwillingness to fix persistent problems including mold has led to legal action by tenants.
(Photo/U.S. Army Public Health via Wikimedia Commons)
It is now mostly forgotten that President Clinton and Vice President Gore actively promoted privatization. In fact, Gore headed the National Performance Review (NPR) which was assigned to promote privatization of government functions, although the preferred the term was “commercialization” and, rather than speak of “people” or “citizenry,” the NPR used the term “customer.”
One initiative, begun by President Clinton and continued under the Bush II administration, was privatizing military housing. In 1996, when the initiative began, the DoD owned, operated, and maintained over 300,000 family housing units.
By the Bush II years, privatized housing for the military was well underway. In late 2007, the Marine Corps Times reported that privatized military housing had been a good deal. “By partnering with the private sector, the services have invested $1.66 billion in family housing, while the private sector has invested more than $20 billion.”
To read this entire analysis find the original article at Truthout.
