November 21, 2025 • 8 mins
A shocking new report from Change The Air Foundation shows the alarming number of military families that have been exposed to toxic mold in base housing. Military Family Liaison Erica Thompson joins us to share her family's story and how she and other military families are fighting for change.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
There is a new survey that just came out that
took a look at military housing across the country. It's
a survey of over thirty four hundred service members and
it confirms widespread unsafe conditions in privatized military housing across
fifty seven installations in thirty states, and the highest reported
(00:24):
health impacts came from families in a couple of different states,
including Florida. Ninety seven percent of respondents reported at least
one major housing problem, most commonly mold, mildew, or microbial growth. Now,
(00:46):
this is right on par with some of the stories
that we've previously done on this show, including tied to
military housing at McDill Air Force Base in the Tampa
Bay Area. Other frequent issues included water damage, humidity, temperature problems,
pest infestations, and more than half of all repair requests
(01:09):
go unresolved. So I want to go to the hotline
now and bring in Erica Thompson Military Families Liaison for
Change the Air Foundation, the organization responsible for conducting this survey.
You can learn more at Changetheairfoundation dot org. Erica, thank
you so much for taking a few minutes to come
(01:30):
on the show and give us an overview. I ran
through some of the highlights from this survey, but give
us an overview of the survey itself and what really
stood out to you about it.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Sure well, thank you so much, Ryan. I know you've
covered down on some of the military housing issues in
the past, so I appreciate you taking the time, of
course to meet with us this morning. But yeah, so
we my family was impacted by the mold in housing
when we decided to go to DC and meet with
congress offices, and so these questions were directly from most
(02:05):
of the congressional offices. They wanted to know how are
the families being impacted readiness wise, how are they being
impacted medically? And so really that's what we tried to
focus on, ask them of those questions that have never
been asked before and really dial in on how are
these people being impacted while in the home. And what
we found was really egregious, you know, as far as
(02:28):
and really across the nation, but Florida had some striking
data come back and that we're seeing the frequency of
experienced issues really really heavily in Florida as well as
health conditions coming out from the family. So I think
that was probably one of the most alarming data points
(02:48):
that we saw.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Seventy six percent of respond and said their family's health
has been harmed. Nearly half said a doctor confirmed the connection,
and nearly half said the housing problems affected military readiness.
Now you're a twenty two year military spouse, tell us
about your personal experience because your family's health was harmed
by this.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, so, and actually in Florida, when you talked about
those you know, readiness being impacted, it's over half in Florida,
It's almost sixty percent there. And so we lived in
military housing for ten short months and we had extreme
issues with our home and we would we spent almost
six thousand dollars trained to you know, help some of
(03:29):
those issues air purifiers, dehumidifiers to no avail. And we homeschool.
So all five of our kids are now medically disqualified
to serve based off of diagnosis we received. We lost
our dog in the house as well, and we had
to put him down after he began having seizures. But
(03:49):
our kids had brain inflammation. Three have been diagnosed with asthma.
One of our kids was diagnosed with bilateral pediatric cataracts
after they opened the walls in our home, and we
were exposed to the toxins, and so another kid's got
pops where they pass out. And so we're seeing extreme
issues and it's not isolated just in one or two
(04:10):
of these bases, is across the country, and so that's
when we decided. You know, I took all five kids
to the Hill and we've met with over sixty offices
and by and large, we've got bipartisan support on this issue,
and I think that's what's most encouraging to see. And
so we just want to give this data to those
offices so that we can see some sweeping reform.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
What about the Pentagon, what is going on there?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah? Yeah, the Pentagon. Actually, I'm glad you asked that.
So over the summer they had they opened the listening sessions.
We pulled eleven families from across the country and they
are wanting to listen. They are wanting to help. I've
actually had cases of families who needed to get out
of homes urgently and we're having to jump through some
hoops and able to connect with the Pentagon and get
(04:59):
some of the people out thankfully. So they are their
open ears and they're wanting the data as well, and
so it's sort of a data gap that hasn't been
done before, and so this survey is filling some of
those gaps and data that they has desperately needed. And
so they are all ears and they are you know,
(05:19):
I've met with senior officials and they are ready to
listen and ready to help I.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Get the data gap thing. And again we're joined by
Erica Thompson, Military Families liaison for the Change the Air Foundation,
talking about this National Military Housing Survey. I get there
there might be a data gap, but it's not like
these stories haven't been publicized before. I mean we've I've
been covering this for years now, just here in Florida.
And I know, Dana you had a question for Erica.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I do.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah. So, Erica, I'm wondering because I'm friends with, you know,
some military spouses and stuff like that, and I had
never heard of this issue before and I was doing
this show. But I'm wondering, is this something that military
families a military wives that you're all kind of talking
about and you've been talking about for years and now
you're getting the attention of people that can actually do
something about it, like it sounds like maybe you've been
suffering in silence with this for a long time.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, and so some of the things, you know, in
twenty nineteen, it was a huge push in Congress made
the tenebill of rates and the dispute resolution process, and
we thought it was going to get better and then
it didn't. And actually a lot of these offices were surprised.
They were like, we thought things were going well and
it just hasn't happened. But within that dispute resolution process
(06:29):
sort of their answer, their fixed is ruled into. You know,
we're seeing a big use of NDA's non disclosure agreements
and so you know, if families are in these homes,
then they need help and get out. Lots of these
people are being offered NDAs and so they can't speak,
they can't go to Congress, they can't stand up and
say hey, I'm having these issues. And so that's something
(06:49):
that it really is. And so we've had a Senate
actually voted to put it into the NDAA the f
y twenty six and it had bipartison support. Every single
person on committee voted to be in the NDA. So
we're hoping that that sticks through the conference in December
and that we'll see that, you know, come next year.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Last question for you, real quick, what can everyone listening
do to help make sure that the lawmakers the Pentagon
that they start paying attention to this and fixing this
problem as soon as freaking possible.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah, So there's families who need to get out now,
and that's sort of one of my goals of this.
See if we can triage and get these families out
who are sick and need help. But reach out to
your congressman and your senators. They're listening, they are supportive,
but we need to keep We've got measures in the
NDAA on both the House and Senate version, and so
they're going to come together and this is where a
(07:43):
lot of those amendments drop, and we want them to
keep them. We want them to keep them in any
safe housing amendment. We've got a few mold remediation guidelines
on the House side, We've got the NDA ban on
the Senate side, and then a Healthy at Home and
Base Act, which is going to study of this mold
and the implications on health. So if they can just
(08:04):
you know, right, reach out, it does matter, they hear
your voices and just support all of those safe housing
amendments for military members.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
All right, We're going to stay on this and please
keep us up to data on how all of this
is progressing, because I get they're all on board, but
they need to pardon my language, move their ass on
this and get this fixed fast. Erica Thompson Military Families
Liaison for the Change the Air Foundation, Erica, thank you
so much for coming on to talk about this this morning.
(08:32):
We appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Thank you both Dan and Ryan. I appreciate it.
There is a new survey that just came out that
took a look at military housing across the country. It's
a survey of over thirty four hundred service members and
it confirms widespread unsafe conditions in privatized military housing across
fifty seven installations in thirty states, and the highest reported
(00:24):
health impacts came from families in a couple of different states,
including Florida. Ninety seven percent of respondents reported at least
one major housing problem, most commonly mold, mildew, or microbial growth. Now,
(00:46):
this is right on par with some of the stories
that we've previously done on this show, including tied to
military housing at McDill Air Force Base in the Tampa
Bay Area. Other frequent issues included water damage, humidity, temperature problems,
pest infestations, and more than half of all repair requests
(01:09):
go unresolved. So I want to go to the hotline
now and bring in Erica Thompson Military Families Liaison for
Change the Air Foundation, the organization responsible for conducting this survey.
You can learn more at Changetheairfoundation dot org. Erica, thank
you so much for taking a few minutes to come
(01:30):
on the show and give us an overview. I ran
through some of the highlights from this survey, but give
us an overview of the survey itself and what really
stood out to you about it.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Sure well, thank you so much, Ryan. I know you've
covered down on some of the military housing issues in
the past, so I appreciate you taking the time, of
course to meet with us this morning. But yeah, so
we my family was impacted by the mold in housing
when we decided to go to DC and meet with
congress offices, and so these questions were directly from most
(02:05):
of the congressional offices. They wanted to know how are
the families being impacted readiness wise, how are they being
impacted medically? And so really that's what we tried to
focus on, ask them of those questions that have never
been asked before and really dial in on how are
these people being impacted while in the home. And what
we found was really egregious, you know, as far as
(02:28):
and really across the nation, but Florida had some striking
data come back and that we're seeing the frequency of
experienced issues really really heavily in Florida as well as
health conditions coming out from the family. So I think
that was probably one of the most alarming data points
(02:48):
that we saw.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Seventy six percent of respond and said their family's health
has been harmed. Nearly half said a doctor confirmed the connection,
and nearly half said the housing problems affected military readiness.
Now you're a twenty two year military spouse, tell us
about your personal experience because your family's health was harmed
by this.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, so, and actually in Florida, when you talked about
those you know, readiness being impacted, it's over half in Florida,
It's almost sixty percent there. And so we lived in
military housing for ten short months and we had extreme
issues with our home and we would we spent almost
six thousand dollars trained to you know, help some of
(03:29):
those issues air purifiers, dehumidifiers to no avail. And we homeschool.
So all five of our kids are now medically disqualified
to serve based off of diagnosis we received. We lost
our dog in the house as well, and we had
to put him down after he began having seizures. But
(03:49):
our kids had brain inflammation. Three have been diagnosed with asthma.
One of our kids was diagnosed with bilateral pediatric cataracts
after they opened the walls in our home, and we
were exposed to the toxins, and so another kid's got
pops where they pass out. And so we're seeing extreme
issues and it's not isolated just in one or two
(04:10):
of these bases, is across the country, and so that's
when we decided. You know, I took all five kids
to the Hill and we've met with over sixty offices
and by and large, we've got bipartisan support on this issue,
and I think that's what's most encouraging to see. And
so we just want to give this data to those
offices so that we can see some sweeping reform.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
What about the Pentagon, what is going on there?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah? Yeah, the Pentagon. Actually, I'm glad you asked that.
So over the summer they had they opened the listening sessions.
We pulled eleven families from across the country and they
are wanting to listen. They are wanting to help. I've
actually had cases of families who needed to get out
of homes urgently and we're having to jump through some
hoops and able to connect with the Pentagon and get
(04:59):
some of the people out thankfully. So they are their
open ears and they're wanting the data as well, and
so it's sort of a data gap that hasn't been
done before, and so this survey is filling some of
those gaps and data that they has desperately needed. And
so they are all ears and they are you know,
(05:19):
I've met with senior officials and they are ready to
listen and ready to help I.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Get the data gap thing. And again we're joined by
Erica Thompson, Military Families liaison for the Change the Air Foundation,
talking about this National Military Housing Survey. I get there
there might be a data gap, but it's not like
these stories haven't been publicized before. I mean we've I've
been covering this for years now, just here in Florida.
And I know, Dana you had a question for Erica.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I do.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah. So, Erica, I'm wondering because I'm friends with, you know,
some military spouses and stuff like that, and I had
never heard of this issue before and I was doing
this show. But I'm wondering, is this something that military
families a military wives that you're all kind of talking
about and you've been talking about for years and now
you're getting the attention of people that can actually do
something about it, like it sounds like maybe you've been
suffering in silence with this for a long time.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, and so some of the things, you know, in
twenty nineteen, it was a huge push in Congress made
the tenebill of rates and the dispute resolution process, and
we thought it was going to get better and then
it didn't. And actually a lot of these offices were surprised.
They were like, we thought things were going well and
it just hasn't happened. But within that dispute resolution process
(06:29):
sort of their answer, their fixed is ruled into. You know,
we're seeing a big use of NDA's non disclosure agreements
and so you know, if families are in these homes,
then they need help and get out. Lots of these
people are being offered NDAs and so they can't speak,
they can't go to Congress, they can't stand up and
say hey, I'm having these issues. And so that's something
(06:49):
that it really is. And so we've had a Senate
actually voted to put it into the NDAA the f
y twenty six and it had bipartison support. Every single
person on committee voted to be in the NDA. So
we're hoping that that sticks through the conference in December
and that we'll see that, you know, come next year.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Last question for you, real quick, what can everyone listening
do to help make sure that the lawmakers the Pentagon
that they start paying attention to this and fixing this
problem as soon as freaking possible.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah, So there's families who need to get out now,
and that's sort of one of my goals of this.
See if we can triage and get these families out
who are sick and need help. But reach out to
your congressman and your senators. They're listening, they are supportive,
but we need to keep We've got measures in the
NDAA on both the House and Senate version, and so
they're going to come together and this is where a
(07:43):
lot of those amendments drop, and we want them to
keep them. We want them to keep them in any
safe housing amendment. We've got a few mold remediation guidelines
on the House side, We've got the NDA ban on
the Senate side, and then a Healthy at Home and
Base Act, which is going to study of this mold
and the implications on health. So if they can just
(08:04):
you know, right, reach out, it does matter, they hear
your voices and just support all of those safe housing
amendments for military members.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
All right, We're going to stay on this and please
keep us up to data on how all of this
is progressing, because I get they're all on board, but
they need to pardon my language, move their ass on
this and get this fixed fast. Erica Thompson Military Families
Liaison for the Change the Air Foundation, Erica, thank you
so much for coming on to talk about this this morning.
(08:32):
We appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Thank you both Dan and Ryan. I appreciate it.
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