Army has a draft plan to fix its barracks by 2030, but will it happen?
By Davis Winkie
Thursday, Oct 5
The Army knows it has a barracks problem. Now the service has a plan to fix it. But it will take additional funding — $4 billion more, to be specific.
That’s what Paul Farnan, the service’s principal deputy assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment, said in a Thursday interview in the wake of a watchdog report that detailed the dire condition of military barracks conditions. Of the service’s barracks buildings used by permanently stationed junior enlisted soldiers, just over 300 facilities (or one-in-five) are rated as poor or failing.
According to Farnan and internal documents shared with Army Times, the Army has a plan that it believes will fix or replace nearly all of those buildings by fiscal year 2030 — if the money’s there. That funding will depend on whether Army leaders decide the issue is more pressing than other competing requirements and whether Congress agrees.
The Army’s “Permanent Party Barracks Resourcing Strategy” recommends surging more than $4 billion into barracks maintenance, repair and construction over the rest of the decade to ensure all single junior enlisted soldiers live in “quality housing” by 2030. These resources would be in addition to the Army’s previous commitment to spend $1 billion per year on military barracks. The recommendations, developed from a facilities investment statistical model, were signed by former Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston, Army G-9 Lt. Gen. Kevin Vereen, and the service’s top civilian official for installations, Rachel Jacobson.
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2023/10/05/army-has-a-draft-plan-to-fix-its-barracks-by-2030-but-will-it-happen/
