JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
The second Army Family Housing town hall was held at the Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston Military & Family Readiness Center March 20 to address housing concerns from Soldiers and their family members living on the installation.
Lt. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, U.S. Army North commander and senior Army commander for JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, joined other leaders and Lincoln Military Housing to provide feedback to Ft. Sam Houston residents about steps taken to address concerns brought up in the initial town hall and during command visits
“One of the consistent feedbacks we got in the first town hall was reinforced during the home visits I personally went on was that we need to do things right the first time,” Buchanan said. “There is an across-the-board sense that we are treating the symptoms rather than the disease.”
The Army, as well as the other JBSA-Fort Sam Houston leaders, are taking immediate steps to identify and fix problems and give residents the quality of life commensurate to their service to the Nation but some issues still linger.
“We have a good response time for emergency work orders and we can look across the board at other installations and we are doing well on our response,” said Mark Greszler, Army Support Activity Manager. “The bad thing of it is that our follow up isn’t any good, our quality assurance and follow up needs to be better and we realized that and we will get at that.”
The Army and other services are working to develop a Tenant Bill of Rights. They are also working to improve existing procedures for oversight and develop other feedback mechanisms for voice residents’ issues.
“The first town hall was mandated and the second follow up was not,” Buchanan said. “I think it is a good idea to stay in better contact with our residents and do these probably once a quarter, so we can make sure we are meeting everybody’s needs.”
Soldiers and family members are encouraged to use existing reporting systems to request maintenance of their homes, and are encouraged to bring issues to their installation leadership and chain of command.
“I really want to keep encouraging the feedback on how we are doing,” Greszler said. “We need to get in a functional steady state of good performance and the way we can do it is if we keep at this and we keep on getting the feedback.”
JBSA-Fort Sam Houston housing service requests can be submitted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by calling “Lincoln at your Service” at 210-225-5564 or submit a routine request online directly at http://www.lincolnmilitary.com.
If assistance with online access is needed, call the LMH office at 210-270-7638. Residents who reside in Watkins Terrace can call 210-832-8104. In-person service requests are taken at the JBSA-Fort Sam Houston Residence Center on Dickman Road and at the Watkins Terrace Community Center on Frazier Road between 8 a.m. and 5 p. m.
Additionally, the Army established a responsive 24-hour hotline at each installation for housing issues. The local hotline for JBSA-Fort Sam Houston is 210-221-0891.
For all maintenance emergencies, call Lincoln at Your Service at 210-225-5564 or call the LMH office.