Further measures taken to give Fort Benning Family housing residents quicker route to resolving repair, other needs

Fort Benning Public Affairs

FORT BENNING, Ga. – Those living in Fort Benning's Family housing now have a new phone number they can call that gives them a more direct path to the people who handle their maintenance matters day to day.

The phone number, 706-685-7848, is answered Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., said Denise Bleiler, community director with The Villages of Benning, the private company that manages Fort Benning's more than 4,000 homes in partnership with the U.S. Army.

The Villages' resident engagement specialist answers the calls, and directs them to the appropriate Villages manager to address the need directly, Bleiler said.

If the resident engagement specialist is away from her desk, she's still reachable, said Bleiler.

"If she's not there leave a message or follow up with an email and she will get back to them within the hour," Bleiler said.

The Villages is asking residents to first try two other avenues and to call the new number if the first two didn't lead to a satisfactory outcome.

The first step is to submit an online maintenance work order, or, if the matter is deemed a maintenance emergency, to call The Villages' 24-hour maintenance hotline: 706-685-3929.

Another option is for tenants to call the community management offices for their particular housing area.

If they deem the matter still unresolved they can call the new resident engagement number.

"It is a way to enhance customer service and for residents to contact us if they are not able to find a resolution either with maintenance or their management office," said Heather Bearden, assistant community director with The Villages.

Residents also have the option of calling the hotline maintained by Fort Benning officials, the garrison housing emergency hotline: 706-626-2002. It's answered 24 hours year-round, said Keith R. Lovejoy, Housing Division chief with U.S. Army Garrison Fort Benning's Directorate of Public Works.

"All the information that's taken from that emergency hotline is given to myself and the garrison commander," said Lovejoy. "We immediately call the resident and if need be, we can get the property manager to respond quicker."

But in creating a new, separate number that goes strictly to The Villages staff, the aim is to streamline handling of resident maintenance needs by bringing them to those who can most quickly act on them.

"It's basically similar to the garrison hotline," said Bleiler. "We have our own hotline now.

"Because we want to solve our own problems," she said. "We would love for people to come to us and let us know what their issues are and give us a chance to fix them first. Because we already got them and as soon as they get to the garrison they come back to us anyway.

"We want people to contact us so we can give them better follow-up," Bleiler said.

The Villages has also emailed to residents a digital flyer labeled "Resident Resolution Process" showing whom to contact and in what suggested order. The Villages also now includes it in the information packet given to new tenants, Bleiler said.

That resolution process is not new, but The Villages decided it would be helpful to outline it visually in a digital flyer, said Bleiler.

"We've always had this as our process but we never spelled it out for our residents," she said. "So what is new on this one is we just spell our process out for all residents to see it in writing."

The Villages has also recently changed how it conducts the briefing they hold for new tenants.

The newcomer briefings highlight key items related to living in Family housing at Fort Benning, including how to call for repairs, dispose of trash, among other matters.

Until the COVID-19 pandemic struck earlier this year, the briefings were quarterly and attended in-person.

Once the pandemic hit, they were halted but resumed in July, with The Villages deciding to hold them online using a videoconferencing system, Bleiler said.

"We do it over Zoom," said Bleiler, "and we personally will send an invitation to every new move-in, because we have their email addresses, inviting them to this briefing."

The additional steps to make residents aware of the resolution process and the changes to the briefing are part of what Bleiler said was an effort by The Villages to build the best possible communication flow between itself and tenants.

"We just want people to see," she said, "that we do hear their voices, and what they tell us matters."