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Fort Hood continuing to look into housing issues

Lend Lease: Work orders will, inevitably, fall through the cracks

FORT HOOD, Texas — The 3rd Cavalry Regiment went door-to-door Thursday to all homes on the installation under their command, which totals over 800 barracks and 600 houses on post.

"Getting out, connecting with our troopers, getting an assessment of life in their family housing is important to us," Lt. Col. Jim Crane said. 

It's been two weeks since soldiers and their families painted a grim picture of housing conditions on post during a Fort Hood town hall.

Lend Lease, the company that oversees housing said it was working to fix the problem.

 Mac Quinney, the Project Director of Fort Hood Family Housing, said with over 60,000 work orders being placed each year, mistakes are bound to happen.

"It's inevitable that we're going to miss a few and some are going to fall through the cracks," Quinney said. "We don't want them to, we want to improve that."

Lend Lease officials said the company employs about 200 maintenance technicians and are "staffing up immediately." 

Representatives also said the company is looking to establish a resident advocacy program. No timetable was given for that project. 

Of the two homes Channel 6 was allowed to visit, just one soldier agreed to speak with us: SFC Michael Graves, who lives in a home built in 2004.

Graves said, for him, housing has never been better.

"I think things are a lot better than they were before everything went privatized," Graves said. "I'm not sure many people remember the Boss Program. They remember the self-help and all that stuff. With the change of things, I think they are a lot better than they were way back in the day."

Crane responded to those who said Fort Hood officials have been indifferent to the living conditions.

"We're hearing them and we do care," Crane said. "Often times in high operational tempo and mission requirements as go to war units, this is an effort that probably doesn't get the full attention it deserves, but we are improving on that every day."

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