Sen. Inhofe Co-Authors Bill That Addresses Tinker AFB Housing

Oklahoma’s senior US Senator and Chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee said the defense bill he's co-authoring will hold private companies accountable for military housing problems.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said companies that manage military family housing across the country, and at Oklahoma’s Tinker Air Force Base, "got a little greedy", but his defense bill will help crackdown on the issues he said began after on-base housing was privatized.

“As time went by, and this is human nature, people got careless and I think maybe the contractors got a little greedy,” Inhofe said in a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate.  “And so all of the sudden we found out that we have got housing for our people with mold and all kinds of serious problems.”

Inhofe said the committee he chairs only heard about the complaints in February of 2019. 

In October of 2018  News9 discovered families on the base were suffering from symptoms associate with harmful mold and last month the base told us they are still addressing cases of toxic mold found in the housing on base.

Tinker officers conducted a review of all of the housing early this year and found issues in 20 percent of homes.

Inhofe said his bill provides a tenant bill of rights and additional oversight to hold contractors accountable.

“We are ensuring each installation has the right personnel to conduct oversight,’’ Inhofe said. 

A CBS News / Reuter’s investigation into Balfour Beatty Communities, the company that manages homes at Tinker and at other bases across the country uncovered ongoing FBI investigations into employees falsifying repair information so that they could collect performance bonuses.