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Lawmaker, Navy housing residents pleased with work to remove mold, other repairs
By William H. McMichael
bmcmichael@militarytimes.com

Fixing homes, rebuilding trust

Gone is the leaking, rotted ceiling over the bathtub and the toilet that was leveled with wooden shims. The squirrel-fouled attic crawl space has been cleaned out and patched up. The Quintela home in the Sandpiper Crescent Navy housing area in Virginia Beach, Va., is once again livable. It took a wave of negative publicity to get it fixed. But the Navy and Lincoln Military Housing, which manages Sandpiper Crescent and 4,380 other military homes in the Hampton Roads region for the Navy, say they are well on their way toward revamping lax maintenance practices that allowed water-leak and mold problems to fester in the Quintela and other Navy family homes. They are trying I will give them that, said Rene Quintela, wife of Boatswains Mate 1st Class Adam Quintela of Amphibious Construction Battalion 2. At least in our community here. For Sandpiper Crescent and the Little Creek area, they are trying really hard to improve. The congressman who pressed hardest to ease his constituents concerns sees more widespread improvement. This clearly has the full and I think proper level of attention from senior Navy leadership, said Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Va. Im convinced of that. But, he added, Thats been a process for me to come to that conclusion ... over a period of time. There certainly was cause for concern, and action. A 1996 law launched the publicprivate venture initiative under which private firms finance and maintain military family housing. Lincoln has managed Navy homes in the Mid-Atlantic region since 2005 and has developed and managed more than 31,000 military homes nationwide since 2001. Military family housing offices that formerly managed all aspects of family housing are supposed to provide oversight and mediate problems. The effectiveness of that rela-

resolved should go to their command master chief. Once thats done, said the regions Command Master Chief (SW/AW) John Fuston, that can filter up the chain of command and get to us. Perhaps most importantly, MidAtlantic Region is in the process of gaining unfettered and direct access to Lincolns maintenance database, Alexander said. That will give us the opportunity to do an independent follow-up and veritionship came under scrutiny last fication of the type of maintenance fall, when reports by a Norfolk TV and the customer service that our station revealed serious water-leak partners provide, he said. and mold issues in homes where The initiative also is serving as families said their complaints had a test bed for wider application either been ignored or poorly an encouraging development for resolved, often with shoddy work- families living elsewhere in Navy manship. Installation Command housing Enter Rigell, who in short order who experience maintenance was visiting the affected homes frustrations. and, along with two other Virginia I think, once we try it out, well lawmakers, pressuring Navy offi- see Navy CNIC, across the entercials to fix the problems, particular- prise, move to adopt something ly those related to mold infestations similar to give all of our Navy famthat some maintained were causing ily housing and partners greater or exacerbating health problems. visibility in the maintenance of our homes, Alexander On the right path said. A bit more than two Lincoln also has taken months after the problems The number of steps in its efforts to came to light, and after homes managed rebuild the trust in all hosting town hall-style by Lincoln Military phases of our organization, events and meeting repeat- Housing visited as said Jarl Bliss, president of edly with Mid-Atlantic of March 7 by a Lincoln Military Housing. commander Rear Adm. Tim repair task force. Weve made some signifAlexander and other offiicant changes in our cials most recently in mid-Febru- staffing, Bliss said. Some folks ary Rigell lauds their efforts. are not with us now. But weve Its really a comprehensive set also looked inside our organization of actions that theyve taken, to provide additional resources for Rigell said. The good news at this the families, additional touch point is, they are not statements of points, so they feel comfortable what will be done. Theyre state- coming to us with issues and know ments of what is being done or that theyll be taken care of in a what has been done. And I was timely fashion. And correctly. really encouraged by it. When the news broke, Lincoln The Navy has taken several sim- announced an eight-point plan ple steps to do so. One is the disper- that included a promise that teams sal of Mid-Atlantic Navy family from a Lincoln-Navy task force housing representatives, until now would visit every home in the Midcentrally located at Naval Station Atlantic region. As of March 7, Norfolk, into offices near family teams had visited 3,112 homes and housing offices so theyre boots on made contact with nearly all the the ground, walking the neighbor- rest most of which are inside hoods, theyre accessible by the res- installations. Hundreds of mold idents, Alexander said. inspections have been or will be Secondly, the region has appoint- conducted, Bliss said. ed a senior enlisted sailor in each Rene Quintela now says the sithousing area as someone residents uation has gotten better. In addican go to if their homes problems tion to the major repairs theyve are not being taken care of. done a ton of things around the Alexander said he has also rein- house to make it more like a home forced the relationship between the now, instead of something falling neighborhoods and installations so apart around me, she said. that our base COs, XOs, command Theyve gotten a few really good master chiefs and family housing guys that have come in and done staff know their neighborhoods; the some of the smaller things in the neighborhoods know who my lead- house, like replacing my ceiling ership teams are on the ground, so fan. Theyve been great. We only that were accessible. had problems with one guy. And I Sailors who dont get problems dont think hes here any more.

MARCH 2012

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March 19, 2012 Navy Times 31