Whiteman privatizing base houses

  • Published
  • By Heidi Hunt
  • 509th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. --  Whiteman family housing residents will see a change in ownership as the base privatizes their homes to a private company soon.

"The base will transfer ownership of 920 on-base family homes and lease 449 acres of land to a private company for 50 years," said Steve Strang, 509th Civil Engineer Squadron contracted project manager for base housing privatization. "Base occupants will soon rent through a private owner and not the government."

Whiteman, an Air Force Global Strike Command unit, has already solicited proposals and is now evaluating them.

"A team of representatives from Whiteman will recommend the best offer by the end of November and Air Force officials will then perform detailed planning and negotiations with the highest ranked company," Mr. Strang said. "The actual selection is done at Office of the Secretary of Air Force and the final agreement is expected to be signed around June 2011."

Air Force installations wanted to make renovations and repairs to base housing, but lacked military funding according to Mr. Strang.

"Instead of budgeting billions of dollars for new houses and renovations, Congress allowed the Air Force to privatize," he said. "This shifts the renovation, construction, operations and maintenance responsibilities of family housing to the private sector, whose expertise is to build and manage housing assets.

"This allows the Air Force to focus on the mission and its Airmen," Mr. Strang said. "For the Air Force, it results in the construction and maintenance of more housing for less money. So far about 70 percent of Air Force bases have gone through the privatization process."

When Whiteman's privatization goes into effect, residents will sign a lease with the private owner who will then collect the servicemember's full housing allowance to pay the rent, regardless of rank.

Water and sewer will be included in the rent; however, residents will be required to pay for gas and electricity if they go over their allotted amount per month.

"The way it's going to work at first, residents won't have meters on the houses so the private owner will take the full housing allowance to pay the utilities," he said.

"Once meters are installed on the homes, residents will be responsible for paying their own utility bills," Mr. Strang said. "That means if occupants use less than the amount of electricity allotted for their homes, they will be able to pocket the extra money left over."

This serves as an incentive for on-base residents to help conserve energy.

"The Air Force has discovered that the private community can build quality houses on average of about 30 percent less than the Air Force pays on the current construction program so the Air Force gets well-built homes that live up to all standards," he said.

"Because Whiteman already has high quality homes, the base is requesting that the prospective owners provide us with repairs and additional upgrades to some of the homes and upgrade community amenities," he said.

The actual scope of upgrades and community amenities will depend on final negotiations.

Under privatized housing, if active duty Air Force occupancy falls below 95 percent occupancy rate, then a 'tenant waterfall' procedure takes place. This would allow private owners to fill homes with occupants starting with active-duty members from sister services, Guard and Reserve, federal service employees, retirees, retired federal civil servicemembers and then Department of Defense contractors.

"Due to the unique mission at Whiteman and past occupancy rates, it is unlikely that housing would ever be opened up to the general public," he said.

"The housing privatization initiative creates a quality of life legacy for today's Airmen and the warfighter of tomorrow," said Major General Timothy Byers, Air Force Civil Engineer Headquarters.

For more information concerning housing privatization, contact (660) 687-5319.