Former Air Force homes bring new life to local tribes

  • Published
  • By Breanne Smith
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  The sight of old, one-story homes being loaded onto semi-trailers and trucked away isn't uncommon for residents of Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D. For the past decade, the base has been a heavy contributor to the more than 1,200 homes donated Air Force-wide to impoverished American Indian reservations through Operation Walking Shield.

Despite home ownership passing to private housing company Balfour Beatty Communities in 2012 under the Military Housing Privatization Initiative, housing privatization program directors at the Air Force Civil Engineer Center found a way to guarantee one last round of excess homes from the base went to a neighboring reservation.

"The contract we signed with Balfour Beatty stipulated that they work with Walking Shield," said Steven Stark, AFCEC's project manager for Grand Forks. "As the new project owners, they have a pretty tight demolition and construction schedule they're trying to keep," he said. "But they were able to create a reasonable timeline that allowed Walking Shield to claim a number of homes before they were demolished." In addition to rearranging the demolition schedule, Stark credited BBC's flexibility and planning which allowed the tribes to take more homes than initially planned.

Before housing privatization initiatives took off, legislation enacted by Congress saw that excess housing units identified for demolition at five northern Air Force bases-- Grand Forks and Minot in North Dakota, Malmstrom in Montana, Mountain Home in Idaho and Ellsworth in South Dakota--were offered first to Operation Walking Shield. In addition to the charitable aspect, the agreement also paired well with the concerted effort to upgrade housing Air Force-wide.

As a result of the cooperative agreement reached in April, Grand Forks has seen another 15 1/2 duplexes, or 31 units, hauled north toward the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation; a feat according to the non-profit organization's program manager, Marvin Thurman.

"It's a multi-step process that takes a lot of planning and coordination," Thurman said. "It's not an easy task."

In addition to the tight demolition schedule, BBC's vice president of construction, Mike Hale, said both groups also had Mother Nature to contend with.

"The project was significantly impacted by a winter that was harsher than normal this past year," Hale said. Between a delayed spring thaw and sporadic flooding throughout summer, both organizations had to be flexible with their respective timelines, he said.

Despite the delays, Operation Walking Shield successfully hauled the final unit off base Aug. 15 to a staging area at the Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa Indians Reservation. There the units wait until the foundation for their final location is ready. Once placed, the 1,200 square foot, three-bedroom units will help fill what Turtle Mountain Chairman Richard McCloud called a critical need. According to a recent survey, he said, there are no less than 1,000 homeless tribal members with approximately 700 of them children.

For AFCEC, news of the final move marks the beginning of a new chapter for housing privatization.

"Fifteen years ago we had an overwhelming number of homes that did not meet the standard of living we set for our Airmen and their families," Stark said. "Privatization allowed us to overhaul the entire program."

Before the arrangement at Grand Forks was made, the housing division seized two more opportunities right at the cusp of privatization to set aside homes at both Malmstrom and Mountain Home. Stark said they were able to move 10, three-bedroom units at Mountain Home to the Ely Shoshone Reservation in Nevada. At Malmstrom, the Air Force excluded 32 homes from the demolition list, saving them for relocation to Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana.

Now, with essentially 100 percent of the Air Force's military homes privatized, the few excess homes that are left have passed to private ownership.

"They aren't our homes to give away anymore," Stark said. "We saw a window of opportunity closing, so we jumped in and made the most of it."