Army seeks $2.35 billion to improve barracks amid recruiting crisis, reports of ‘poor’ living conditions

The United States Army, the nation’s largest military branch, is requesting $2.35 billion to make quality-of-life improvements to its barracks amid an ongoing recruiting crisis and reports of “poor” living conditions, Military.com reported.

The Army released its fiscal year 2025 proposed budget last week, which reprioritized a significant portion of its funds to addressing the reportedly squalid conditions of some of its barracks.

In total, the branch is requesting a $185.9 billion annual budget — a 0.2% increase from fiscal year 2024. The Army aims to allocate $2.35 billion to improving its barracks, according to the budget request. It earmarked $1.5 billion for barracks this year.

If approved by Congress, the additional funds will cover the costs of building new barracks and restoring existing living quarters.

The proposed budget outlines the construction of nine barracks and four family-housing projects located in Fort Johnson, Louisiana; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia; Smith Barracks and Barton Barracks, Germany; Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico; and Parks Reserve Forces Training Area, California.

Approximately $750 million would be used for restorations and modernizations. The Army noted that the budget also sets aside funds for barracks managers to provide maintenance.

Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo stated, “People are obviously our top priority,.”

“[Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth] and Army leaders have, for the last two years, really emphasized the need to have sustained investment in quality housing for our Soldiers, both for families and individual Soldiers in barracks,” Camarillo added.

The budget highlights noted that the military branch has “made significant progress in our 10-year $10 billion barracks investment plan and with our $3 billion Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) aimed at improving the condition of our housing inventory.”

“We remain committed to improving oversight of barracks and family housing at every post and will continue to aggressively inspect barracks and family housing to prevent future issues and mitigate any life, health, and safety deficiencies identified,” the overview read.

The Marine Corps announced last month that it would conduct a “wall-to-wall inspection” of all its living quarters following a September report from the Government Accountability Office that found the Department of Defense’s barracks are in “poor conditions.” The investigation revealed that some of the DOD’s living spaces posed “potentially serious health and safety risks” to service members. The Army carried out inspections of all of its barracks last year.

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