JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. –
Brian Stann, Hunt Military Communities CEO, met with U.S. Army Col. Harry Hung, 633rd Air Base Wing vice commander, in an effort to keep improving the housing community at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, Jan. 18, 2022.
As the CEO, Stann is responsible for leading the strategic direction and operations of Hunt's military housing portfolio comprised of 165,000 residents in approximately 52,000 homes on Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Army installations across the USA.
“For me and the JBLE team, we made a commitment to make housing the best it can be with our privatized partner,” Hung said. “And we plan to deliver the promise that every family, regardless of service, has a safe, secure and fantastic home experience here in Hampton Roads.”
After Hunt Companies, Inc. announced Stann as the new CEO for Hunt Military Communities in Aug. 2, 2021, Hung was able to invite Stann to JBLE-Langley. They both took this opportunity to focus on inventory and find ways to improve the resident experience and housing operations.
The big question was, how do we get better support for the families here and have housing be an asset that makes families want to stay?
Stann agreed that these are fluid conversations that require transparency. There’s an obligation to these projects and anything that significantly impacts their occupancy for an endured time is not only bankrupting the project, but hampering the JBLE mission.
The meeting brought U.S. Air Force Col. Allen Herritage, 633rd Mission Support Group commander, and Lt. Col. Michael Askegren, 633rd Civil Engineer Squadron commander, to the table alongside the Hunt Military Communities team. The main points of discussion were capital repair and replacement, manning, root cause analysis, customer service, and budget.
Stann expressed that different homes from different eras will need different services, and his team is moving forward with better predictive technology that will allow them to stay ahead of the curve and meet the needs of residents in a consistent and timely manner. For this, they added a head of technology and are integrating sophisticated data architecture that will help streamline processes.
Stann’s team is also in the works of placing the entire company on the same integrated phone system. With a focus on customer service, this will allow Hunt to track total call volume by category. They’ll see average wait times, call length and even how many times a call is allowed to ring before the resident hangs up. The team understands that analyzing this data can help them better predict the times of high traffic and influence manning hours.
“The leaders of this company are accessible and we take tremendous pride on our impact on your force readiness,” Stann said. “And part of my job is to make sure I empower these leaders so they can operate faster.”
During the meeting, Herritage discussed Langley’s weather, sea level rise and flooding; making a case for larger projects that are going to need housing and JBLE to work together towards agreeable solutions. After expounding over the different talking points, they concluded with a tour of housing, both on and off base. This tour allowed Stann to enter and see some of the issues at hand.
Hung expressed that he is very thankful the Hunt Military Communities team is looking at better ways to address the challenges, in terms of corporate policies as well as decisions that impact maintenance, manning and customer service and experience. He is very pleased to hear Stann is making deliberate and concerted efforts to leverage technology and culture change.
Hung encourages the JBLE community’s feedback on all things concerning housing, as every voice is heard and gives way to further improvement.