FORT HOOD, Texas — The leadership at Fort Hood is being proactive in fixing the housing issues first brought to light following a town hall meeting held on post on Friday.
"So, lets talk housing a minute," Fort Hood Commanding General Paul Funk said as part of his opening remarks at the luncheon in Killeen on Monday. "Some of you might have heard there's a housing issue at Fort Hood, and there is."
Throughout a town hall meeting last week, soldiers and their families brought up their concerns about the conditions, both in-person and on Facebook, where the meeting was livestreamed.
One person said in a Facebook comment directed at leadership, "Shame on you, it shouldn't be now you want to fix things when this has been going on for years. You now care because you've been put in the public spotlight."
"It's absolutely unacceptable that soldiers are deployed and need to be concerned about their housing situation back home," Col. Myles B. Caggins, III said. "That's why we're partnering closely, daily, in a collaborative way with the leaders of our residential partners."
"We're going to take it head-on just like the United States Army does everything," Funk said. "We're going to take this on and work the process and we're going to get to a solution on this thing."
Caggins said over the next few weeks, Fort Hood leaders will knock on doors of every Fort Hood resident to make sure all concerns are being met.
"100 percent of them," he said.
Caggins said Fort Hood leadership can't end its partnership with Lend Lease, the company responsible for housing on post.
"Yeah, it's important for residents on Fort Hood, and viewers to know more broadly that the decision of housing partners is far beyond the purview of the current Fort Hood leadership," Caggins said.
In a press release, Fort Hood said Lend Lease has committed to hire additional maintenance personnel and to retrain its current workforce to focus more on completing work orders faster.
A 24-hour hotline has been established for emergency situations that need immediate leadership attention due to life, health or safety issues within the barracks or housing areas that a normal work order can't handle, the release said.