New Bill Pledges Enforceable Standards for Mold in Military Family Housing

by ROSE L. THAYER, Stars & Stripes Staff Writer

Late last month, a bipartisan group of lawmakers on introduced a bill to hold private landlords of military family housing financially responsible for the health and safety of the homes they lease on military bases through enforceable standards.

“Hundreds of thousands of military families are going without safe and decent housing,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said during a news conference with other senators, House members and military families. “These private landlords are violating the basic moral rights and usually legal rights of those families. … What we need is strong, effective legislation that will give families the tools they need to make sure contractors comply with the obligations they have, and put on our military the burden of protecting those families.”

The new bill, the Military Occupancy Living Defense, or MOLD Act, has five key provisions he said will improve safety and oversight and give families new pathways to report hazards in their homes.

Specifically, it mandates Defense Department-wide requirements for acceptable levels of humidity in homes, calls for third-party inspections between tenants and for complaints, opens a 24/7 complaint hotline and website for hazard reporting, penalizes landlords by withholding fees and allowing tenants to keep their rent for noncompliance, and dedicates a Pentagon oversight office to the issue.

“It is absolutely the right thing to do for our service members, their families and the future of our armed forces,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said during the news conference. “We must treat our service members with the dignity they have earned, and that they absolutely need to care for their families.”

Alongside Blumenthal and Ernst, others leading the effort of the MOLD Act include Sens. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii; and Reps. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla.; and James Moylan, Republican delegate from Guam. The bill is another in a long line of efforts to improve the quality of military family housing, which is primarily

dsmanaged in the United States by private companies.

Roughly 700,000 service members and their families live in this type of housing. Families have reported mold, water intrusions, broken appliances, and pest and rodent infestations, as well as insufficient efforts to repair or remedy conditions.

Military advocates highlighting the lasting impacts of toxic exposure, particularly on children, have invigorated Congress to begin mandating reforms, such as the tenant bill of rights created in 2019 and the establishment of stronger oversight from the military services and Defense Department. Past efforts have also created an online complaint system and plain-language lease agreements. The private companies responsible for military housing over the years have announced new construction and new lines of credit to update homes faster.

However, some families still face dangerous conditions. “Our home was contaminated with toxic mold,” Erica Thompson, a military spouse for more than 22 years, said during the news conference. “We lost our family dog, we lost most of our belongings, and our children lost their health. As a result of that exposure, all five of our children are now medically disqualified to serve in the military.”

She came to Washington to share her story and advocate for change as a military liaison for Change the Air Foundation, a nonprofit focused on improving the indoor air quality through changing laws, policies and conducting research. She said the stories she has collected from families show that toxic conditions in military housing are not isolated, but “a systemic failure.”

“Most importantly, [the MOLD Act] does recognize that the serious health consequences of environmental toxins are real and they are happening to military families,” Thompson said. Jackie Talarico, a Navy spouse who spoke Thursday, said she appreciates the support for the bill, which has endorsements from Blue Star Families, Military Officers Association of America and the National Organization of Remediators and Microbial Inspectors. “No military family should ever have to sacrifice their life, health and safety, in what’s supposed to be their safe place, their home, after all they sacrifice every day for our country,” she said.

This story has been reprinted with the permission of Stars and Stripes, which retains all rights. The story was originally published Jan. 15. 2026 on www.stripes.com.