Thursday, June 4, 2009

TOP STORY > >AF Installations asst. secretary visits LRAFB, discusses housing

By Staff Sgt. Juan Torres
19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

Ms. Kathleen Ferguson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, visited Little Rock Air Force Base May 29.

Ms. Ferguson met with base leadership to discuss construction projects here to include the planned education center, the new base exchange and base housing.

During her visit, Ms. Ferguson discussed how Hunt-Pinnacle’s experience with housing privatization at other bases has impacted Little Rock AFB’s housing project.

“Hunt-Pinnacle runs approximately 40 percent of the Air Force’s housing privatization program and as we have traveled and conducted quarterly reviews we have seen that they have a great reputation,” she said. “I’ve been very impressed with the turnaround at Little Rock since the sale of the American Eagle project to Hunt-Pinnacle back in November.”

“They are also starting to make progress on turning over some of the partially built homes for family living; we saw one of the houses today that was started by American Eagle that someone will be moving into later this week,” she added.

Mr. Gordon Tanner, Deputy General Counsel Environment and Installations Division, Office of the Air Force General Counsel, accompanied Ms. Ferguson and discussed the impact that quality base housing has had for Airmen.

“What impresses me the most is the impact on the mission,” said Mr. Tanner. “We have military members that are deployed and have family members back home and they are confident their families are living in safe, secure and well-maintained housing.”
Since the Air Force started housing privatization in 1997, 27 deals have closed at 44 installations with the ultimate goal of privatizing 100 percent of houses at the 22 remaining bases by 2010. In addition to the impact on the mission, Ms. Ferguson said housing privatization has also been a financial win for the Air Force.

“The Air Force invested just over $400 million and we’ve saved approximately $6.4 billion for the development [of housing] for our military members,” she said. “For every dollar the Air Force puts in, we get $16 in development for our military members; we could’ve never done that by traditional methods.”

During the visit, Ms. Ferguson urged military members to consider privatized base housing while making the choice of where to live.

“Overall, we’ve seen very positive experiences across the Air Force when you start considering the benefits base housing provides: the security, the convenience to work and the closeness to the amenities to include child care, the BX and the office,” she said. “They have a variety of choices of where of live, and [privatized housing] is certainly not for everybody, but for a good majority of military members we feel it’s a great choice.”

Current plans for Little Rock AFB’s housing are to retain as-is the 24 homes built by the previous project manager, to build or complete 141 new homes, and to renovate 834 homes. The planned end state inventory is 1,000 homes with all renovations and new construction complete by March 2012.

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