ICYMI: Earlier this month Senator Murray and Representative McMorris Rodgers called on the Air Force to conduct the first analysis of the Fairchild local housing market in over 16 years – MORE HERE
The Air Force announced today that they plan to include Fairchild in an upcoming Housing Requirement and Market Analysis, as the lawmakers requested
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) announced that the Air Force will include Fairchild Air Force Base (AFB) in a FY23 Housing Requirement and Market Analysis (HRMA). The move follows the two lawmakers sending a letter to Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall on December 3 calling on the Air Force to conduct a full HRMA for Fairchild AFB in Spokane in order to asses and better address the affordable housing needs of servicemembers and their families at the base. The last full HRMA for Fairchild AFB was conducted in 2005.
“As many servicemembers and their families at Fairchild Air Force Base continue to struggle to find affordable housing, I’m glad to see the Air Force listening to our concerns and taking this important step towards addressing the severe housing shortage our airmen at Fairchild face, both on base and in the local community,” said Senator Murray. “We have a duty to our servicemembers and their families—at Fairchild and across our state and globe—to make sure they have a safe and affordable place to call home, and I’m going to keep pushing until they do. I appreciate the Air Force working with us to get this done, and I look forward to working with them and Representative McMorris Rodgers on further actions to address these housing shortages in the meantime.”
“I am pleased to learn Secretary Kendall has agreed to conduct a Housing Requirement and Market Analysis (HRMA) for Fairchild Air Force Base. This is a necessary effort to better understand — and ultimately address — the lack of affordable housing for service members and their families stationed at Fairchild, and it is an encouraging step in the right direction,” said Representative McMorris Rodgers. “I am grateful to the secretary for taking our concerns seriously and hope this review will lead to an improvement in meeting military housing demand.”
Representative McMorris Rodgers continued, “Seeing as this report will not be conducted until FY23, we must not forget that military families in the Spokane area are still facing very real housing challenges that cannot be pushed aside. Rent and housing prices are soaring, and on-base housing is scarce. I look forward to working together on an interim solution to address these concerns and ensure every servicemember and their family has access to safe, affordable housing until the new HRMA report is completed.”
The Spokane region’s apartment vacancy rate has been at or below 2.1 percent since the spring of 2019, falling to as low as 0.6 percent this past spring. On base housing availability is extremely limited as well, as Fairchild AFB Privatized Housing currently has a 97.8 percent occupancy rate, with 621 out of 635 available houses occupied. Of the 14 units currently unoccupied, 13 have already been pre-leased. There are currently 149 military families on a waitlist for base housing, with wait times ranging anywhere from one to nine months.
A new HRMA would help the Air Force assess and address the current housing issues at Fairchild AFB.
Read the lawmakers’ letter below or HERE.
###
English 
Spanish