FORT LIBERTY, N.C. – The Fort Liberty Directorate of Public Works Housing Division, the Army Civilian Career Management Activity Housing Management Career Field Division, and the Military Housing and Lodging Institute partnered together to provide the Certified Military Inspector Housing five-day training on Oct. 16 through Oct. 20 to various housing management installation careerists.
The attendees of this course came from various installations, including Fort Liberty, Fort Drum, Fort Belvoir, Fort Rucker, Fort Jackson, Fort Gregg-Adams, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Fort Irwin, Fort Bliss, and others. Having various housing professionals across several installations for this training provided an opportunity to foster peer connections and consistent housing communication.
“MHLI has trained over 1,000 people in this class over the years,” said Kevin Keating, certified military housing inspector. “This class has evolved for the best due to greater emphasis on increased government accountability.”
Keating, who works for MHLI, created and facilitated the CMIH inspector course. Keating has 24 years of active-duty military experience and over 40 years of facilities engineering and property inspections.
The course offers attendees an intensive background into the best practices and policies on military housing inspections. It provides a greater understanding of inspection principles for existing or new homes in the private and government housing sectors.
In addition, a portion of the class was devoted to understanding areas of high customer concern, such as lead-based paint, mold, and electro-mechanical systems. This course sets the stage for military housing teams to ensure housing options are maintained to a high quality of living for service members and their Families.
“The Army Civilian Career Management Activity of the Installations Career Field Housing Management Division scheduled this training at Fort Liberty for our housing teams,” said Calvin Williams, ACCMA housing program manager. “We want to ensure our housing professionals are invested and equipped to assist in providing housing accountability through inspections."
Williams also noted poor conditions of military-connected housing are a driving factor in producing experienced and trained military housing inspectors. The overwhelming feedback from past course attendees prompted his team to offer the course in the future.
Attendees were required to conduct a practical inspection of vacant homes and complete a 50-question final exam to pass the course. All seven Fort Liberty housing managers who attended the course, along with one Corvias supervisor, passed the course with flying colors.
Several attendees shared some of their biggest takeaways from the course.
“During the training, I learned in greater detail the mechanisms of mold, how mold grows and how to prevent it,” said Rita Foulkes, Fort Liberty housing manager.
“My biggest takeaway from this course was how to understand HVAC components and mechanisms,” said Sandra Davis, Fort Belvoir housing ombudsman.
“What stuck out to me about this training was the in-detail overview of appliances,” explained Verlon Farris, Fort Bliss housing manager. “As a former housing apprentice and now a housing manager, this training provided me with deepened confidence to inspect homes.”
“It was a great experience to collaborate with Fort Liberty, as our military housing partner,” shared Germel Hoffer, Corvias maintenance supervisor. “It was also great to get different perspectives from the Army side and share the Corvias partnership side.”
“Mr. Keating has tons of experience and is extremely knowledgeable in his craft,” continued Hoffer. “After taking this course, I feel more strengthened to ensure homes are inspected to the highest quality by our Corvias teams before residents move in.”
Hoffer went on to say he believes it would be an excellent idea to offer the course to military organizations and housing partners alike for future team building and better collaboration.
“We work more confidently when we know our workforce servicing housing is being equipped to inspect homes our service members and their family members live in,” said Williams.
For more information about the Fort Liberty Housing Services Division, call 910-396-1022.
For more information about the MHLI course offerings, call 703-771-0055.
Story by Jessica Taylor, Fort Liberty Directorate of Public Works Housing Manager
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