Special Report: As their landlord profits, soldiers battle unsafe Army homes

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina (Reuters) - One set of photographs, posted on Instagram, captures a grand, crimson-colored banquet hall at a 100-acre Irish estate with two 18th Century mansions. The owner has redecorated the residence in gilded mirrors and blue damask wallpaper with the help of a renowned interior designer and is having a personal golf course installed on the verdant grounds.

Another set of pictures, taken by tenants, shows homes across the Atlantic in North Carolina, Maryland and Louisiana, plagued by flooding, bursting pipes, mold blooms, collapsed ceilings, exposed lead paint and tap water as brown as tea.

The same man is behind all these dwellings.

Ireland's historic Capard House is among the vacation properties owned by Rhode Island real estate developer John Picerne. He purchased the estate in 2015 after emerging as one of the largest private landlords on U.S. military bases. The others are the homes of his warrior-tenants, who pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year in rent to live in housing run by Corvias Group, Picerne's closely held company.

Since 2002, Corvias has acquired control of more than 26,000 houses and apartments across 13 military bases. Picerne's company runs this lucrative enterprise in partnership with the Army and Air Force through a program that enlists private-sector operators to build new dwellings, upgrade others, and manage the properties for 50 years.

The Corvias homes are among 206,000 now under private management in the 22-year-old U.S. Military Housing Privatization Initiative, the largest-ever corporate takeover of federal housing. The military says the effort has enhanced the lives of service members and their families.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/special-report-as-their-landlord-profits-soldiers-battle-unsafe-army-homes/ar-BBRucsp?li=BBnb7Kz

Isn't privatization wonderful?