Navy hospital asked to review housing mold woes - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Navy hospital asked to review housing mold woes

Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Va., wants the Navy’s top medical official in the Hampton Roads, Va., region to meet with family members to discuss their concerns over health problems they feel are related to exposure to mold in their privately managed Navy housing.

Rigell sent a formal request for such a meeting to Portsmouth Naval Medical Center after he held a phone conference with members of 12 concerned families Wednesday afternoon, asking that a leader or representative “proactively engage” the families in a discussion over a possible link.

Rigell told Navy Times his discussion with the families was “disappointing.”

“They expressed very serious ongoing concerns,” Rigell said. “Their concerns were acute, they were very similar to what I’ve heard before … slow response time to a request for a mold inspection, and then an unacceptable delay, in their view, between the time the test[s] were taken, and results.”

Rigell said he was most concerned, however, over families’ complaints that mold was causing health problems.

“Of particular concern to me — and one that we’re going to pursue — is the appearance of a cause-and-effect relationship between occupancy and the onset of serious health concerns,” Rigell said. “There were several accounts where the families described to me serious medical conditions that, in their account, they said did not exist until they occupied their present home.”

Rigell, who visited family members and held a town hall-style meeting in the region in early December after accounts on a local TV station came to his attention, said that to his knowledge, he hadn’t previously spoken with or heard from the family members he spoke with Wednesday.

The families live in homes managed by Lincoln Military Housing, which manages 4,381 homes for Navy Region Mid-Atlantic and more than 31,000 military homes nationwide. Nearly all military family housing is managed through similar public-private ventures.

Rigell said that he hasn’t yet had follow-up talks with Navy Region Mid-Atlantic and Lincoln Family Housing about the concerns of the families he spoke with Wednesday but said his staff is reviewing an extensive situational update and action plan the Navy provided Wednesday. Rigell said he would be discussing “transparency” issues Thursday with Rear Adm. Tim Alexander, the region commander.

Rigell has previously said he appreciates the Navy’s swift response to the complaints. But he acknowledges that it did so only after the complaints became public and attracted congressional interest. Despite complaints that Lincoln fell short in terms of maintaining Navy housing and responding to complaints promptly and effectively, the region, he said, failed to properly oversee the management of its privately managed family housing.

“We’ve been very clear with the Navy leadership on this,” said Rigell, adding the names of Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., who both also attended the December town hall meeting. “The responsibility lies first with our own Navy leadership. I mean, that’s a principle of management that cannot be overlooked. It’s chain of command. They may have ‘subbed’ this out … but they are still ultimately responsible for the safety, the welfare and the health, as it relates to housing, in this example.

“To me, the real question to be addressed is, how did we get in this position in the first place – to where these homes were clearly … some of them … unacceptable in their condition?” The region has acknowledged that it needs to improve its oversight of the maintenance and complaint resolution process.

Rigell said he will continue to pursue the issue. “My absolute main concern … is that each and every military family … is going to have a safe and comfortable home,” he said. “I’m not gonna let go of this until our families are taken of.”