Nellis plans to build 800 new homes for families

Jace Radke

Wednesday, April 14, 2004 | 10:53 a.m.

Over the last 18 months Debbie Kent has made about a half-dozen requests for maintenance at her 30-year-old home at Nellis Air Force Base.

The problems included sliding glass doors that didn't slide and old copper wiring that gave her home a well-done smell, but with her husband deployed to Kuwait and three children at home, feeling safe and being close to military services is a priority.

"They aren't the biggest or newest homes, but there is a real sense of security here," Kent said of living in a 1,550-square-foot home at Nellis.

"It's close to everything on base, and we have guards at the gate.

"I've had to have maintenance out to fix the little things that go wrong with older houses, but they've always taken care of the problems. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else."

The Air Force wants to continue to provide the security and convenience of on-base housing for Kent and other military families, while eliminating the problems that come with the older housing at Nellis, some of which is more than 50 years old.

Housing "is by far the most significant quality-of-life issue that we have," said Col. Kurt Lohide, a support group commander with Nellis' 99th Air Base Wing. "Defense Secretary (Donald) Rumsfeld has said that he wants all inadequate military housing replaced by 2007.

"At its core it's really a readiness issue. We can't have young men and women in combat in Iraq and other places worried about their families having to deal with roofs leaking and drains backing up at home."

By this fall Nellis officials hope to begin the task of demolishing the bases' older homes and building more than 800 new family homes. A developer will build the homes, and will manage them over a 50-year contract, in essence becoming the landlord for those personnel and their families living on-base.

"Normally military construction requires money from Congress, but the innovative aspect here is that we are teaming with private industry," Lohide said of the privatization plan that was set in motion in 2002. "In the big scheme of things we are moving at a pretty good pace, because this is a major culture change for the military."

A draft environmental assessment of the project was completed in February, and the project is expected to go out to bid this summer, said Kimberlee Benart, Nellis deputy base civil engineer.

The plan calls for the renovation of 363 homes, construction of 815 new units and the demolition of 915 homes. There are more than 7,600 active-duty personnel assigned to Nellis and there is a 98 percent occupancy rate for on-base housing.

Air Force personnel usually wait an average of about seven months for housing at Nellis, Benart said.

"We want to focus on keeping our younger airmen on base where they can use the net of services that are provided, and (where) we can take care of their families," Lohide said. "It's tough for a young airman to go out and compete in the housing market in Las Vegas."

Airmen living on-base receive free housing, while those living off-base receive a housing stipend, but it doesn't usually cover all of the costs in the Las Vegas housing market. The amount of the stipends is determined by rank, the size of the airman's family and other factors.

Jaime Ryan, who lives in one of the oldest homes at Nellis with her 2-year-old daughter and husband, who is an administrator at O'Callaghan Federal Hospital, said that living on base is her family's best option.

"We lived in an apartment off-base for about six months when we first got here, and the housing money never goes far enough," said Ryan, who has been living on-base for the last three years. "We have a dog, and we'd always have to walk her at the apartment, but here we have a back yard where the dog and my daughter can play.

"You know you're in an older house here, and you have to call maintenance sometimes, but you also have a nice sense of community and you know your neighbors."

Ryan's house is a boxy single-story home made of cement blocks painted white, and looks more like a bunker than a place where her daughter plays with her toys in the backyard.

While the houses and yards are well-kept, there is no real solution to the wear and tear that the old houses have incurred through the years, Lohide said.

"Everything is maintained, but these are old homes, and things tend to need repairing more often," Lohide said "It really is a huge issue as far as retention goes.

"You constantly hear from airmen that it's a major irritant to be out laying your life on the line while your family has to live in substandard housing."