Austin lived in the same room in the same barracks for all six years he was stationed at Fort Bragg.
The roof regularly leaked, recalled Austin, who asked to be identified by his first name only out of fear of retaliation. One storm left an inch of standing water in his room, breaking a $1,500 computer.
Austin said he returned from a nine-month deployment to find the barracks’ hallways covered in black mold and his room’s thermostat reading 80 degrees. He and other soldiers regularly used mops and bleach to clean the mold without proper personal protective equipment.
Austin said the living conditions made him sick with headaches, nausea and a heavy feeling in his chest that made it hard to breathe.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Austin said. “We as service members, we basically give up all of our freedoms in order to serve a country that we love, and in return, we get substandard living conditions, and then we get held accountable for those substandard living conditions.”
Fort Bragg’s barracks are in “crisis,” according to a new Army tenant satisfaction survey. More than half of the 192 Fort Bragg soldiers who responded to the survey said they were dissatisfied with their barracks.
Across Fort Bragg and the other military installations included in the survey, soldiers said persistent mold problems, pest infestations, maintenance delays and outdated facilities make living in the barracks difficult.
“While we are not pleased with the overall ‘dissatisfied’ ratings, we are not surprised by the results or the low participation,” a Fort Bragg spokesperson told CityView. “Housing maintenance and improvement remains a priority for Fort Bragg leaders because our soldiers and families deserve quality housing, and we are using the survey results to inform ongoing efforts to improve conditions across the installation.”
A crisis at Fort Bragg
This is the first time the Army’s annual tenant satisfaction survey asked about barracks. Like previous years, CEL & Associates, Inc., a real estate consulting company, conducted the survey. Responses were anonymous and collected from March to May.
The survey’s summary results show Fort Bragg ranked second to last out of the 46 installations included. The installation’s barracks received a total satisfaction score of 52.4 out of a possible 100, placing it in the “crisis” category.
Results from the survey’s general satisfaction indicators show that, of the soldiers surveyed:
- 58.9% were dissatisfied with their housing.
- 55.3% were dissatisfied with the overall current condition of their housing.
- 52.5% were dissatisfied with the overall level and quality of service received through the installation’s housing.
- 57.4% were dissatisfied with the overall condition and visual appeal of their housing.
Fort Bragg commonly receives complaints about air conditioning in the barracks, the spokesperson told CityView. The Fort Bragg Department of Public Works (DPW) had 450 work orders the week of Aug. 11; 106 were related to air conditioning.
The spokesperson also said many soldiers complain about work order response times. Austin, who is now stationed at another military installation, said he struggled to get many of his work orders filled at Fort Bragg, often waiting weeks for a response. He said several work orders for air conditioning and mold were never addressed, or DPW said they were resolved without taking action.
“There are a lot of underlying conditions when it comes to problems in the barracks, but the living conditions are inhumane,” Austin said. “And they don’t give us any solution because they don’t hold DPW accountable.”
Response times for work orders depend on how they’re categorized, the Fort Bragg spokesperson said. Emergency orders are addressed within 24 hours, and urgent orders within a week. Work orders deemed routine can take up to 30 days.
Fort Bragg’s DPW currently has a backlog of 169 work orders, with most being urgent or routine, according to the Fort Bragg spokesperson. Three are for emergency work orders.
“Waiting on parts is the leading cause for backlog, as some system components are custom-made or need to be ordered. This is especially the case for HVAC and electrical work orders,” the spokesperson said. “Our maintenance teams prioritize barracks and Child Development Centers and take prompt actions to resolve all work orders as quickly as possible.”
The Army Maintenance Application, or ArMA, launched in 2021 and allows soldiers to submit and track work orders online. ArMA was implemented on Fort Bragg in 2023 and has received 7,819 work orders.
Fort Bragg spends an average of $30 million per year to maintain and renovate its barracks, the spokesperson said. Recent spending includes the Smoke Bomb Hill barracks; 12 of the 22 buildings that make up the barracks were demolished this spring, and construction on replacements is expected to be completed by 2029.
The work follows a 2022 inspection that found “higher than normal moisture levels” and “quality of life concerns,” a Fort Bragg spokesperson told Army Times following the relocation of over 1,100 soldiers who were living in the barracks.
Construction on barracks at the Yarbough Complex is also underway, the Fort Bragg spokesperson said.
“Quality housing for soldiers contributes to Army readiness, and we are committed to improving housing conditions across the force,” the spokesperson said. “Feedback from residents is vital to helping us identify what’s working and where we need to improve.”
Soldier-made solution
Soldiers commonly post feedback on the conditions of the barracks on Hots&Cots, an anonymous review platform for housing and dining on military installations across all branches.
“Our goal is to give those living in barracks a voice,” said Rob Evans, founder and developer of Hots&Cots. “Because, at times, they don’t feel like they’re being heard.”
Hots&Cots allows soldiers to rate their barracks and their meals out of a possible five stars, and they can supplement their rating with a written review and photos. As of Aug. 22, Fort Bragg’s profile shows an average housing rating, which includes barracks and privatized housing, of 1.94.
The most common issues highlighted in reviews of Fort Bragg’s barracks are mold, trouble accessing working laundry facilities, and broken heating, ventilation and air conditioning, Evans said. The reviews also mention troubles getting the public works department to respond to work orders.
“Service members come to Hots&Cots because they’re following the process and they’re not getting any solution,” Evans said.
Evans regularly flags reviews to installation leadership he knows in the hope of resolving a soldier’s issues. He’s also piloting a new leadership dashboard on Hots&Cots that lets service members anonymously submit comments or questions about housing and dining to leadership. Evans screens the comments before posting them to the dashboard.
The dashboard and the Hots&Cots review platform are Evans’ best efforts to address the longstanding issues with military housing and service members’ loss of trust in the official means to resolve them.
But Evans, who served as an Army reservist and has read through the almost 1,100 total Hots&Cots reviews, said the best solution is a financial one. He said more money from the defense budget should be reserved exclusively for improvements to housing.
“It’s still very frustrating that these issues are still happening and leaders at installations can only do so much with the money they have,” Evans said. “The real change needs to start at the Department of Defense, within the budget constraints, within NDAA [the National Defense Authorization Act]. Those are where these changes need to happen through elected officials.”
This year’s National Defense Authorization Act is still being drafted. The U.S. Senate’s version of the bill includes $6.4 billion in funding to support military infrastructure, including for family housing and barracks. The funding, if included in the final bill, would be divided across the service branches, with a branch’s secretary determining allocations to each installation.
Given the installation’s size and strategic importance, Fort Bragg is likely to receive a portion of this infrastructure money from the Secretary of the Army, a source familiar with the National Defense Authorization Act process previously told CityView.
The Army also plans to invest about $2.8 billion annually to into barracks from FY 2026-30, the Fort Bragg spokesperson told CityView.
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville.