This investigation was co-published with the Project On Government Oversight.
The 23-year-old mother of two has good reason to feel a little unhinged.
Her 17-month-old son is so congested that he has trouble breathing.
Illustration by Ren Velez/POGO
Her husband, an Army Private First Class, has recently been hospitalized for cluster migraines.
Every time they tell me theres no mold, I find mold.
Every time without fail, Metzler says.
Can we reframe the problem as just a part of life?
reads a presentation slide from an Army counter-mold workshop held in early 2023.
But mold woes are not unique to the Army, nor are they limited to specific housing companies.
Plus, the fundamental nature of privatized military housing makes these situations harder for military families to escape.
They end up being trapped, said Ryan Reed, a Texas-based attorney who specializes in military housing.
This frequency of moving can make it hard for military spouses to have steady employment to provide supplemental income.
Aubrey Metzler says they cant afford to live off-base, nor can they afford the cost of child care.
Were barely making it, she said.
While the Kiernans legal victory was rare, their problem is less so.
Mold is the number one housing issue that military families face, according to Jean Coffman.
Reed said roughly 90 percent of his military housing cases involve mold.
More recently, DOD Secretary Lloyd Austin revealed in aletter to Senator Elizabeth Warren(D-Mass.)
that in 2023 there were at least 4,588 reports of mold in Air and Space Forces privatized housing.
That number encompasses military family housing, barracks, and other Army facilities.
The DOD and other military branches have not responded to our requests for interviews and mold-related data.
Infants and young children are evenmore susceptibleto mold, withincreased risk of asthma.
Both Metzler and her neighbor say that they have been repeatedly denied requests for mold testing in their homes.
Thats always thrown out as a no.
It is not Army policy to refuse to test, according to an Army spokesperson.
I can go and do a two hour course and now be a mold inspector, said Katiraei.
The spokesperson said they have the goal to have at least four OSHA certified specialists on each Army installation.
The techs are not properly trained to identify mold, Hall argues.
They come in, they misspeak.
They will say, mold is everywhere.
The workshop covered strategies and practices for mold identification, prevention, and mitigation.
Viewing mold as a normal part of life will decrease anxiety and increase trust, reads one slide.
Another claims, mold is ubiquitous, its [sic] everywhere.
That framing is just ignorance, according to Joseph Reiss, an expert in mold remediation.
So far, Reiss has conducted mold sampling at 22 military homes.
The goal here is, test: Dont guess, he said.
She has also noticed mold growing quickly on fabric items in the home.
In the meantime, its stressful to stay in a home that she worries is making her children sick.
She doesnt feel good here, and I cant do anything about it.
