1997 Annual Defense Report Table of Contents - Air Force Magazine

Services, commanders, and leaders are sensitive to the time service members spend away from their
families and are taking a number of actions to help reduce adverse impacts. The Office of the Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs developed a FY 1995-1997 pilot program to use Reserve
component forces during peacetime to reduce the active component operating tempo. Although there
remains concern over the long-term impact of high personnel tempo, only localized areas of adverse
impact have been noted and these are being addressed by the Services and the Joint Staff.
HOUSING
Secretary of Defense Perry recognized the importance of housing as a key element in the quality of life of
service members and their families. Dr. Perry said that there is an iron logic linking quality of life;
recruiting and retention; and high mission readiness. While the United States military has reduced in size,
the hazards U.S. service personnel face remain daunting. Retaining motivated, educated, and trained
forces is critical to meeting future U.S. national security missions. For these reasons, improving the
quality of housing for uniformed personnel is linked to combat effectiveness.
Legislative Authorities Update
The recent enactment of legislative authorities proposed by the Administration will allow the Department
to attract private capital to help solve DoD housing problems much more quickly. The new authorities can
be used individually or in combination, and will allow the Department to attract private capital and
leverage appropriated dollars by at least three to one. These housing improvement authorities tools will
permit loan and rental guarantees, leasing, conveyance or lease of land and facilities, direct investments,
differential lease payments, and direct loans. As military construction projects are converted to
privatization projects financed using the new authorities, the Department expects to use the savings to
fund additional projects. These legislative authorities and projects are further described in the Business
Affairs, International Programs, and Installations chapter.
Family Housing
Currently, one-third of military families live in military housing. About 200,000 of these government
quarters require major renovation or replacement, at a cost of $20 billion. With the current level of
military construction funding, it will take the Department 30 years to address the $20 billion problem.
Neither the cost nor the time line of current housing construction and modernization meet the challenge
DoD faces. To combat this problem, the Department will couple the recently enacted legislative
authorities with current family housing funds. The FY 1997 Defense budget included $3.1 billion for
operating and maintaining 359,000 family housing units, and $1 billion for construction and improving
family housing. For FY 1998, the Department has requested $3 billion to operate and maintain family
housing units and $700 million for constructing and improving family housing. These funds are used for
renovation or replacement of housing, depending on which is more economical. Revitalizing family
housing often involves actually reducing a base's total housing inventory while improving its quality.
While the Department has a robust program to improve on-base housing for service families, it continues
to rely first on the local housing market, where about two-thirds of military families live. Families pay on
average about 19 percent out-of-pocket to obtain adequate housing. As part of DoD's quality of life
initiative, $20 million was added to the Department's FY 1997 budget request to continue funding joint
public/private ventures in FY 1997; Congress appropriated $25 million for this purpose.
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