FORT RUCKER, Ala. -- The results are in from the Army’s Residential Communities Initiative 2019 Fall Resident Survey and the bottom line for Fort Rucker is housing residents on post feel their homes are “very good.”
While Corvias and post officials are pleased overall with what the survey revealed about the state of housing on post, they feel more still needs to be done, according to Col. Whitney B. Gardner, Fort Rucker garrison commander.
“This survey validates what we’ve known all along – Fort Rucker is a great home for our Soldiers and families,” Gardner said. “We’re happy that our on-post housing residents are largely happy with their homes, but we’re also committed to doing an even better job of providing the best possible housing that we can provide.
“Our mission with Fort Rucker housing is constant improvement,” the colonel added. “We will continue working closely with our partners at Corvias to keep doing just that – we owe nothing less to our Soldiers and families who sacrifice so much for our country.”
Corvias is all-in on that mission, according Melissa Bryson, the company’s Fort Rucker operations director.
“The results were definitely an improvement over the spring survey – a huge improvement and much more indicative of how our residents feel,” Bryson said, adding that the response rate also increased to 37% over the spring survey’s 14%. “Improvements were made; however, we know we still have room to do better. Although Fort Rucker’s housing is in the very good range, we want to see it higher – we want it to be in the outstanding range.”
Results of the survey are available at https://www.army.mil/e2/downloads/rv7/families/2019_fall_rci_survey_summary.pdf.
Fort Rucker rated 10th in overall satisfaction with an 81.6 score. The highest rated housing was at Fort Greely, Alaska, with a 90.6 core, and the lowest was at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, with a 60.8 score.
Fort Rucker’s property satisfaction scored 76.4, rating out at 15th place, and service satisfaction scored 84.7, rating out at seventh place.
“We’re really happy to see how much the service side improved – there was almost a 10-point increase,” Bryson said. “2019 was certainly a challenging year for military housing as a whole, and we had a lot of things we needed to focus on. Seeing that much of an increase really shows that our team was up for the challenge – they did not give up and kept pushing through.”
She said Corvias also received many positive comments about the responsiveness of the maintenance teams.
“That shows that the measures we put in place and everything that we did on the service side really have paid off,” Bryson added. “We’ll continue to watch the comments we receive very closely. If there is anything that we need to take action on, we will do so immediately.”
If there was anything disappointing about the survey, she said, it would be the responses received on property appearance and condition.
“We’ve put measures in place to enhance the curb appeal of Fort Rucker’s housing,” the operations director said. “We definitely still have a ways to go there and we recognize that, and we will certainly do everything we can to enhance the curb appeal. With the projects we have going on, I feel that our residents are going to see huge improvements very soon.”
Those ongoing projects include pressure washing sidewalks, pressure washing and cleaning playground equipment, replacing street signs, sprucing up parks and common areas, and also an overall playground improvement project that, while it has experienced some delays, is still in the works with an anticipated completion date towards the end of July, she added.
“We also see a lot of room for improvement in lawn care,” Bryson said. “Measures have been put into place and we expect people will see a huge improvement in the overall appearance of the community.”
Corvias also continues with its major renovation of classic homes in the Munson Heights Neighborhood, and the heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems and fixture updates of homes in Allen Heights, she said, adding that people are already moving into the renovated Munson Heights homes.
“We have completed 12 of those homes (in Munson Heights) and anticipate that we will have two of those delivered each week for the remainder of the year,” she said. “We’ve received really positive feedback from people who’ve moved into the homes – they seem to be very happy with how they turned out. I think they’re just fantastic – beautiful on the inside and modernized. We’re very pleased with how they are coming along.”
Even though the Allen Heights project has experienced some delays due to the pandemic, Corvias continues to work on them as homes become vacant, she said, adding that the work is progressing nicely.
“We feel like that project will certainly take care of a lot of the issues that we’ve seen with those homes,” Bryson added.
Prior to the end of the year, Corvias will also begin an energy project that will update homes with LED lighting, improved toilets and Wi-Fi-controlled thermostats, she said.
Bryson said residents certainly should not wait until survey time to let officials know how they feel about their homes.
“We implemented the gold standard of service in 2019, and customer service has always been a high priority for Corvias – we continue to put our customers first,” she said. “We listen to what our customers tell us and we take action on what they say. We really appreciate the feedback we receive from our residents, and we hope they continue giving us feedback so we can continue making improvements.”
Residents can reach Corvias officials through the resident portal, by calling 334-440-8988 or sending an email to ruckerleasing@corvias.com.
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