Austin News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) introduced the Military Housing Performance Insight (MHPI) Act to improve military housing conditions for servicemembers by requiring the Department of Defense (DOD) to publicly release existing reports on privatized family housing on military installations.

Upon filing, Sen. Cruz said, “Texas is proud to be the home of 15 military installations and over 100,000 active duty servicemembers, many of whom live in private military housing. In recent years, the Department of Defense’s private military housing offerings have fallen short, resulting in many servicemembers and their families living in substandard conditions. I am proud to join Sen. Warnock in introducing the Military Housing Performance Insight (MHPI) Act, which will increase transparency about the quality and conditions of private military housing on installations. Our servicemembers deserve better, and public accountability is the first step to addressing those issues.”

Sen. Warnock said, “Our servicemembers and their families deserve safe, quality housing. That is why I am proud to join Senator Cruz on this bipartisan effort to ensure transparency and accountability needed to maintain high standards in military housing. By making these reports publicly accessible, we can better empower military families and communities to advocate for their needs effectively.”

The Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) refers to reforms and authorities granted to the DOD in the 1990s allowing for the privatization of military family housing on installations (also known as “on-post family housing”). Since Congressional hearings in 2019 exposed severe deficiencies in the quality and safety of on-post housing, there have been efforts to improve conditions. However, ongoing issues persist at installations across Georgia.

Despite numerous initiatives and improvements over the past five years due to focused Congressional and DOD oversight, continued vigilance is necessary to sustain these gains. The frequent movement of local military installation leaders mandated by the Permanent Change of Station (PCS) process often disrupts institutional knowledge and can reduce command attention to housing problems.

To ensure continued focus on on-post housing issues, the MHPI Act democratizes oversight through transparency. By making current quality information of military housing publicly available, military families, advocacy groups, and communities can hold local commands and housing management companies accountable. Current Congressional reporting requirements on MHPI quality are limited to the Senate Armed Service Committee and are often one-time reports. The new bipartisan legislation mandates annual publicly accessible reports to sustain improvements and democratize oversight.