Fort Carson works to improve housing maintenance after ranking last in residential satisfaction
Across Army bases with privatized housing Fort Carson has come in last for residential satisfaction for three years. It’s a trend base leadership is determined to turn around.
“I’ve put a stake in the ground. … Fort Carson is not going to be last,” Garrison Commander Col. Sean Brown said.
Residential satisfaction across Army bases is gauged through annual surveys that allow residents to rate items such as the quality of the home, the responsiveness of those providing maintenance, pest control, landscaping and other items.
Fort Carson received a score of 58 in 2023, or very poor. A score below 55 is considered a crisis. The highest scoring installation in 2023 was Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, with a score of 89.2.
4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson Commander Gen. David Doyle has taken a personal interest in responding to housing complaints, leading walking town halls that started in September through neighborhoods to talk with residents about their concerns. At the first one, two residents were prepared at the start point with a list of grievances, Brown said.
Last week, Doyle and Brown led separate tours through a neighborhood from the 1970s, Apache Village, both with large entourages including representatives from Balfour Beatty Communities, the company in charge of Fort Carson housing. When Doyle is unavailable for a monthly tour, Brown will lead the effort.
Doyle said he thought bringing Balfour Beatty representatives on the tours to talk with residents was helping to improve responsiveness.
“When we bring them to the location, they’re generally very good about following up,” he said.
In addition, the number of maintenance work orders waiting for more than 30 days have been reduced by 300% over 18 months, Brown said. As the number of work orders waiting for attention has gone down, responsiveness has also improved.
During the walking tour, base leadership received some positive comments.
“Folks were happy with the responsiveness of maintenance. Nine months ago, that’s not the feedback that we would have gotten at all,” Brown said.
Balfour Beatty Communities has also set aside some additional funding to address neighborhood-wide issues, he said. Last year, the company set aside an additional $1 million for reoccurring issues and this year, it’s even more, he said.
For example, Apache Village had issues with sewage backups last year and the company has added a way to clean out the sewage lines with high pressure hoses, he said. In other areas, new insulation is going in around interior pipes put on exterior walls that have been freezing, he said.
In general, homes from the 80s are those the base has had the most problems with, Doyle said.
In addition to talking with residents about their concerns, the groups also looked for violations of leases residents agreed to as part of living in base housing. Ensuring residents are keeping their homes in good order, helps reduce the time houses stand empty for repairs between tenants, which is important because the base has a wait list for housing, he said.
The base also doesn’t have enough housing for all those who would prefer to live on base, Doyle said, with 26,000 people coming to work each day and only 3,200 homes.
New housing is expected to go up in the coming years to replace the almost 240 older homes that were demolished in recent years, he said. The new housing recently received funding, he said.
While Brown expects Fort Carson will not come in last in the tenant satisfaction survey, he also knows that progress still needs to be made. He expects the walking town halls will continue through command changes because of its high impact.
In addition to raising issues during walking town halls, if residents do not receive prompt responses from Balfour Beatty, they can bring their issues to senior noncommissioned officers who are responsible for each community and responsible for raising the issues with the chain of command.
The annual tenant satisfaction survey opened on Monday and will be open through April 18. The surveys are conducted by a third-party company and they are confidential.
Tenants who do not receive the survey email from ArmyHousingSurvey@celassociates.com should contact their local garrison housing offices for assistance.
From left, Fort Carson Garrison Commander Col. Sean Brown and Command Sgt. Maj. Alex Kupratty speak to a resident of the Apache Village on the base during a walking townhall on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Once a month Fort Carson leadership and subject matter experts walk neighborhoods on post and look for major violations, talk to residents about concerns and address housing issues. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
Fort Carson leadership inspect a vehicle that appears to be abandoned on the street in the Apache Village on post during a walking townhall on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Post leadership has been conducting the walking town hall’s for six months, giving residents an opportunity to speak in-person about concerns and allowing leadership to address any violations in the housing on base. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
Fort Carson Garrison Commander Col. Sean Brown, right, and Command Sgt. Maj. Alex Kupratty, center, speak to residents of the Apache Village on post during a walking townhall on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Once a month Fort Carson leadership and subject matter experts walk neighborhoods on post and look for major violations, talk to residents about concerns and address housing issues. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
Fort Carson Garrison Commander Col. Sean Brown, center, and Command Sgt. Maj. Alex Kupratty, right, are joined by other post leadership as they walk through Apache Village during a walking townhall on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Once a month Fort Carson leadership and subject matter experts walk neighborhoods on post and look for major violations, talk to residents about concerns and address housing issues. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)