By Tech. Sgt. Arlo Taylor
314th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
Construction of the privatized base housing projects at Little Rock Air Force Base has officially stopped, leaving Airmen waiting for new and renovated housing units.
In the meantime, base Airmen are left in the middle while waiting for these problems to be resolved.
“Affordable, quality and safe housing for our Airmen should be a priority for all Arkansans,” said Brig. Gen. select Wayne Schatz, Little Rock AFB installation commander. “It’s critically important to our nation’s warfighting capability to know that our families have the best possible housing while we’re deployed around the world supporting operations in the Global War on Terrorism. Frankly, the housing situation at Little Rock AFB has failed them.”
The developer, American Eagle Communities, has shut down the housing project for a lack of funds with only 25 new units of the $121.5 million project completed. The plan had called for more than 122 new units and 513 renovated units to be completed by this phase of the project.
In 2006, the private company, American Eagle Communities, received $9.2 million in rental revenue from Airmen through their federally allotted Basic Allowance for Housing pay. That’s an average of more than $766,000 per month, according to base officials.
To date, all housing allowances have been paid by the Air Force to American Eagle Communities and no debts are outstanding.
The privatization plan was intended to construct 468 new units and renovate a total of 732 homes for the Little Rock Military Community by 2011. The developer has similar projects with the Air Force at Moody AFB, Ga.; Patrick AFB, Fla.; and Hanscom AFB, Mass. All of these projects are encountering similar situations to the Little Rock AFB project.
Previous reports of increased deployments rates and permanent change of station moves dropping the housing occupancy rates are erroneous, according to Schatz.
“There are contractors and people in the community who are affected by this stoppage of construction and we too, like you, are victims in this on-going saga,” said Schatz. “I hope the privatization officials of American Eagle Communities can resolve this matter in an expeditious matter for the sake of the Airmen and their families, the contractors and the communities of Central Arkansas.”
American Eagle Communities is a private company selected to build and renovate housing at several military installations around the country.
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