The program appoints a privatized housing resident advocate to support active-duty members and their families. These positions have been appointed across most military installations. Wright-Patterson’s RA arrived for duty last week.
Derrick Brashears is the newly appointed privatized housing advocate at Wright-Patterson. As the RA, he will be working directly with the command team to advocate for housing residents and to help expedite any issues that may arise.
“My job here as RA will be to focus on maximizing mission readiness by driving a culture which ensures military members and their families live in safe, healthy, secure privatized housing,” Brashears said.
The Air Force has dedicated many positions to the housing enterprise in 2020 to ensure commanders have resources to help implement the new housing program and to support residents with housing needs.
One of Brashears’ goals as the new RA is getting involved with the community through community outreach. He wants to reach out to residents to let them know he is here to help resolve any issues or concerns with housing they may have and to get them handled efficiently.
“My intent with this new position is to reduce the issues that are in base housing, and then I want to be able to mitigate these arising issues,” Brashears said.
For residents, though, the housing office and privatized partners will remain as the first point of contact for any issues that may arise.
To help ensure housing residents have access to safe and well-maintained homes, the DOD has put into place a new Bill of Rights for privatized housing. As of May 1, these 18 amendments went into effect to help support those residents in privatized housing.
Access to maintenance history, process for dispute resolution and withholding of rent until disputes are resolved are just three of the 18 rights that will guarantee residents get the proper assistance as residents of privatized housing.
Col. Phillips is eager to have Brashears fill this new housing advocate position and see those in housing have their problems taken care of.
“I’m excited to bring Mr. Brashears onto our team,” said Phillips. “As the son of a career military member who lived in base housing, and then go on to serve in the Air Force himself, he’s uniquely qualified to represent our residents and ensure their housing concerns are addressed. We envision this position to serve as our front line in guaranteeing the new housing bill of rights is fully implemented while enhancing quality of life for our residents.”
Brashears’ top priority is to guarantee residents are getting the help that they need in a timely manner.
“If after going to the privatized owner and the military housing office, the still have issues, they can come to me,” said Brashears. “I can then do all the research and legwork and help facilitate resolutions between all three parties.”
For more information, contact Brashears at joshua.brashears.1@us.af.mil or 937-713-9614.
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