Braxton Taylor
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is looking to live in military family housing and requested to use $137,000 in taxpayer funding for repairs — including nearly $50,000 for an “emergency” paint job — a pair of top Democratic lawmakers said in a letter Friday demanding more details.
While it is not unprecedented for a defense secretary to live in military housing, it is far more common for them to find private housing. And the reported price tag to fix up Hegseth’s military house comes as rank-and-file service members continue to struggle with crumbling, unsafe living conditions and as the Trump administration has been looking to slash government spending elsewhere.
“We know that many service members and their families currently live in unacceptable housing conditions including houses with mold, lead paint, and other hazards,” Democratic Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut said in their letter to Hegseth about his housing. “What commitment will you make to provide service members with a similarly high quality of housing for themselves and their families?”
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DeLauro is the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, and Wasserman Schultz is the ranking member of the panel’s subcommittee in charge of military construction funding.
Under the law, Congress must be notified if maintenance and repairs for housing meant for general and flag officers is going to cost more than $35,000.
In that context, lawmakers were notified late last month that the Army was looking to spend $137,297 on maintenance on an unoccupied family housing unit, according to Wasserman Schultz and DeLauro’s letter. The total cost included $49,900 for an “emergency” paint job, the letter added.
On Wednesday, almost a week after the initial notification, the lawmakers found out Hegseth will be moving into the house that’s being repaired, the letter said.
The Pentagon did not respond to Military.com’s requests for comment Friday on the claims in the letter.
The apparent urgency to fix up Hegseth’s housing comes as service members have struggled for years with subpar housing and an inability to get timely repairs.
A series of 2018 Reuters articles exposed systemic issues with privatized military housing for families such as mold, rodent infestations and shoddy repairs, and military families have continued to report similar issues in the years since.
Young enlisted troops in the barracks, too, have faced unsafe living conditions. A 2023 Government Accountability Office report found rampant problems with overflowing sewage, mold, bed bug infestations and squatters.
At least one defense secretary has lived in military housing before. Bob Gates lived in a home on a Navy compound in Washington, D.C., when he was defense secretary, Stars and Stripes reported in 2008. Gates was the first defense secretary to live in military housing, according to the news outlet.
Most defense secretaries find their own homes. For example, Hegseth’s immediate predecessor, Lloyd Austin, lived in a nearly $3 million, 8,700-square-foot house in Great Falls, Virginia, according to Task and Purpose.
When Gates lived in military housing, he paid more than $6,500 in monthly rent. At the time, defense officials expressed concern that he was required to pay more than three times as much as an officer would to live in the same house, because officers only had to pay the amount of their basic allowance for housing, according to Stars and Stripes.
The Pentagon did not answer Military.com’s question about whether Hegseth will pay rent and how much.
In response to the concerns in 2008, Congress passed a law in that year’s annual defense policy bill saying rent for a defense secretary living in military housing must be 105% of the monthly BAH rate for a four-star general living with dependents in the same area.
“The Department of Defense requested this provision in the belief that housing the secretary of defense in established quarters on a secure military installation is far more cost-effective than installing, maintaining and protecting sensitive Department of Defense equipment, along with secure information facilities and security and detection systems, in private residences,” a Senate report about that year’s bill said.
The report also said DoD believed that it would reduce disruptions to the public and costs for security protection.
Under the law, the rent is supposed to cover “maintenance, protection, alteration, repair, improvement or restoration.”
In their letter to Hegseth, Wasserman Schultz and DeLauro also asked about what rent he will pay and whether any other defense secretaries lived in military housing that needed funding to be repaired first.
The pair also asked why exactly there needs to be an emergency paint job, as well as for a list of available officers’ housing that doesn’t require as costly maintenance as the house Hegseth is choosing.
They requested a response by Feb. 21.
The first Trump administration had several scandals involving Cabinet officials and their housing or furnishings.
Scott Pruitt, who served as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency at the beginning of the first Trump administration, was forced to resign amid several scandals, including allegations that he got a sweetheart deal to rent a D.C. condo from an energy lobbyist.
Mike Pompeo reportedly lived in Army housing when he was secretary of state. According to Politico, he first tried to live in Navy housing, but lawyers for that service called the idea “problematic” and raised “factual, legal, fiscal and ethical” concerns.
And Ben Carson, who served as housing and urban development secretary, faced allegations that he misused funds for fancy office furniture, though he was cleared of wrongdoing.
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