Rep. Jimmy Patronis of Florida has introduced HR 5035, the Housing Our Military Effectively for Readiness, Operations, and Neutralization of Threats Act of 2025 or the “HOMEFRONT Act.” This legislation waives overcompliance that restricts the military’s ability to modernize and improve military housing and protects servicemembers from predatory nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) that have prevented the troops from sharing their housing concerns.
HR 5035 exempts military family housing and military unaccompanied housing from the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) subject to the discretion of the Secretary of Defense. Since the mid-1990s, the Department of Defense (DOD) has spent nearly $28 billion on privatized military housing after finding that nearly two-thirds of its 180,000 domestic family housing inventory was in need of repair, inadequate, or required complete replacement.
With passage of the NHPA in 1966, the federal government began a new era of leadership in the preservation of historic properties.
“Our heroes in uniform and their families deserve modern, safe, and dignified housing without bureaucratic hurdles or agreements silencing their concerns,” said Rep. Patronis. “This bill supports our military families through common sense. First, it’s unconscionable we would subject a military family to an NDA requirement. Second, just because a facility is old, does not make it historic. So why would we be wasting taxpayer money instead of supporting our troops on things like pay raises and equipment? The HOMEFRONT Act cuts more red tape, preserves our history, but more importantly, provides the Secretary of Defense additional authority to ensure our servicemembers don’t live in substandard conditions. President Trump is making our military strong again, and I believe that effort should include providing service members the legal right to refuse nondisclosure agreements and ensure their families have adequate housing.”
Once a property has been determined eligible for listing on the National Register, the DOD must manage the property to the same standards as any structure listed in the Register. This process untenable reality traps military families in unsafe homes that may contain toxic materials, such as led-based paint and asbestos, limits the building materials that may be used, delays repairs, and excessively drives up maintenance costs. Preserving a large inventory of properties to historic standards is financially unsustainable, contradicts both the President’s and the Secretary of Defense’s priorities, and represents a threat to retention and readiness. About one-third of the Army’s homes are more than 50 years old. Updating just 10,000 of them to meet historic rules would have cost more than $820 million.
Click here for more on the HR 5035, the Housing Our Military Effectively for Readiness, Operations, and Neutralization of Threats Act of 2025.
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