Ossoff to put Army leaders on the spot about Fort Gordon housing

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Next Tuesday – a year after he led an eight-month bipartisan investigation into the mistreatment of military families in privatized housing — Sen. Jon Ossoff will hold a Georgia military housing oversight session in the U.S. Senate.

The housing woes are a problem the I-Team’s Meredith Anderson has been following for years, and news of the new session broke this morning only on News 12

At the session, Ossoff hear directly from Fort Gordon military families about the current state of privatized housing on post and the progress made in the last year to improve conditions of these homes.

Ossoff will also be releasing a new report to highlight these findings.

EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF NEW FOCUS ON HOUSING:

At the session, Ossoff will also hear testimony from Rachel Jacobson, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy, and environment, and Lt. Gen. Kevin Vereen, deputy chief of staff of the Army, G-9, to hear what progress the Army has made in overseeing and improving privatized housing conditions on Fort Gordon and across the country.

“A commitment I’ve made is to stay focused on this. There are no easy or fast fixes, but I’m going to remain focused on it. So we are holding another event in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday. Senior Army leadership will be there to answer questions about what progress has been made since last year’s investigation,” Ossoff said.

He continued: “We will have senior Army leadership in the U.S. Senate for this session that I’ll hold to answer my questions about what progress has been made since I unveiled the results of last year’s investigation.”

The I-Team’s Anderson plans to be in Washington next week to cover this hearing.

EARLIER COVERAGE FROM NEWS 12:

• Senators hear of horrors blamed on military housing
• We asked a simple question about Balfour Beatty
• Housing problems continue with Balfour Beatty
• Fort Gordon housing investigation update
• Army moves quickly on Fort Gordon housing
• How military families feel about housing settlement
• U.S. Army kept in the dark about issues

Improvements in family housing on the post are something Ossoff, D-Ga., has been pushing for after his monthslong Senate investigation essentially made Fort Gordon the poster child for bad military housing.

We’re learning of the session a day after Ossoff visited Fort Gordon to oversee inspections on those homes.

The inspections started a couple days ago and should last around four weeks.

Ossoff says he’s familiar with ongoing issues with mold, structural problems and other potential health hazards.

Ossoff says military families have already sacrificied so much, and he believes they shouldn’t have to sacrifice safe and healthy living conditions too.

He says these home-by-home inspections happening this week are an important step toward making things right.

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