Private company now manages Travis housing

  • Published
  • By Courtesy of the Housing Office
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The often rumored privatization of Travis family housing has taken a giant step with the selection of a private company to assume management of the Travis housing assets. The new company is GMH Military Housing that manages more than 27,000 Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force privatized units nationwide.

The new business arrangement will help ensure modern, quality housing for military members and their families.

Final negotiations with GMH will take place over the next several months, culminating with the government conveying title to all Travis houses and leased land parcels to the project owner.

Under the current schedule, the company will assume management during the first week of April 2008. The basic impact of this conversion is that all base housing residents will sign a lease, receive their Basic Allowance for Housing and pay rent and utilities, just like at any rental unit off base.

This new arrangement has some worried that their BAH will not be enough. However, the rent and utilities should never exceed the BAH. Individuals will be given a utility allowance (for gas and electric) in their monthly paycheck based on the expected utility consumption for the type of unit in which families are residing.

"Change is always an uncertain time, but we are benefiting from the experiences of those bases which have already privatized, and our project is doing the very best it can to implement the best practices and avoid past pitfalls," said Robert Vunesky, housing privatization project manager.

"The ultimate result is expected to be a smooth conversion with minimal family disruptions to bring high quality, privately-owned and managed housing into the future."

The utility allowance will encourage conservation. If utilities are conserved, a portion of the allowance can be saved. If utilities are wasted, the overage will be paid out of pocket.

There will be a phasing-in period for paying utilities so those families won't be expected to pay PG&E immediately.

The new lease will be strictly in accordance with all California and federal laws which provide protections to both the tenant and landlord. The effective day of the lease will begin your BAH entitlement and an allotment to pay your rent.

The project owner will establish detailed schedules for all workflow for the construction of 358 new units, major renovation of 106 units, demolition of all surplus units and what's expected to be minimal disruption of continued occupancy.

If required to relocate, the project owner will provide sufficient warning and pay for the move. In general, any moves on base will be from surplus units to newer or brand new units, or moves to a new unit based on correct entitlement. During these transitions, it is very unlikely tenants will be required to move more than once.

Once the construction and renovations are completed, Travis will have 1,134 newer and modern family housing units.

"Privatization will utilize military members' full BAH, as well as private sector financing to improve housing immediately with renovations and new construction," Mr. Vunesky said. "But more importantly, the housing will be maintained to a high standard to ensure future generations of Travis Airmen will always have a quality housing experience at Travis."

For any further questions, contact Bob Vunesky at 424-1472 or robert.vunesky@travis.af.mil.