Army Eyes Privatized Barracks as It Struggles to Find a Solution to Poor Living Conditions for...

"Privatization is something the Army has been flirting with for nearly 30 years.

In 1996, Congress passed the Military Housing Privatization Initiative, granting the services authority to privatize housing for "unaccompanied personnel," which generally refers to junior enlisted troops.

That initiative allows the Defense Department to provide direct loans and various financial incentives to private-sector developers. The services mostly walked away from the idea. The Army, instead, doubled down on traditional barracks and spent more than $12 billion on barracks construction and renovations between the bill being passed and 2012.

This also is not the first time the service has eyed Fort Irwin for privatization. In 2009, it looked at that installation, alongside Fort Johnson (formerly Fort Polk), Louisiana, Fort Drum, New York, Fort Liberty, North Carolina and Fort Meade, Maryland -- some of which ended up having small-scale privatized barracks. But when it came to privatizing large-scale, traditional barracks for entire units, the Army concluded that the cost to privatize was greater than what it was currently spending on construction and maintenance."