Allison and Spc. Grant Boshaw of the 1st Cavalry Division on June 16, 2023, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. They will be the first to receive a new home in Heritage Heights at Fort Cavazos, Texas. (Samantha Harms/U.S. Army)
AUSTIN, Texas — The Boshaws are trailblazers in the military community at Fort Cavazos where they will be the first family next week to move into a home in a new family housing community at the Army post.
The home that they leave in now at the Texas base was built in the 1950s and is slated for demolition.
“I feel incredibly honored to have this opportunity,” said Allison Boshaw, 24.
She and her husband, Spc. Grant Boshaw, 22, and their 4-year-old son accepted the keys Friday in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the first nine of 580 new homes being built at Fort Cavazos. The new neighborhood, Heritage Heights, will house the families of soldiers ranked sergeant or lower.
The homes are the first new houses built at Fort Cavazos since 2018 by Lendlease, the private company that manages family housing for the central Texas base. Lendlease, which operates locally as Cavalry Family Housing, pledged to spend $420 million in five years to build new homes and renovate some existing homes.
Across the country, Lendlease is spending nearly $1.1 billion on its family housing inventory with the aging homes at Fort Cavazos receiving more than any other post. That influx in spending came two years ago as the Army leaned on Lendlease to reorganize its debt and speed up in improving its housing stock.
More than half of the company’s 26,000 homes will be renovated or rebuilt with the new money, the Army said. Fort Campbell and Fort Knox in Kentucky and Fort Wainwright in Alaska also will get newly built homes.
Other renovations at Fort Cavazos include new exterior paint on more than 800 homes, roof replacement on about 3,000 homes and interior renovations for more than 1,300 homes, base officials said.
“We’re grateful for the opportunity to improve together,” Phillip Carpenter, Lendlease communities chief operating officer, said during Friday’s ceremony. “Looking ahead, Lendlease has committed to setting a new standard for military housing here at Fort Cavazos, and across our Army portfolio.”
Cavalry Family Housing staff, Lendlease management, and III Armored Corps and Fort Cavazos leaders watch as Allison and Spc. Grant Boshaw of 1st Cavalry Division cut a ribbon June 16, 2023, outside their new home at the Texas Army post. The Boshaw family is the first to receive the keys to a new home. (Samantha Harms/U.S. Army)
The Army and the other service branches took a heavier hand in overseeing privatized family housing after news reports in 2018 showed the dangerous conditions some military families were encountering in base residences. Families described exposure to toxins such as mold and lead paint, while others complained of rodent and pest infestations, water leaks and broken appliances that were all exacerbated by slow response times from maintenance workers.
Congress has since intervened and passed several new laws to push for better oversight and protections for families. At several bases, families filed lawsuits, including at Fort Cavazos.
As part of its increased oversight of housing, Fort Cavazos launched a resident advisory board. For the last year, Allison Boshaw has been a member of the board, which helps residents who have issues with housing and takes in suggestions to improve the community.
Grant Boshaw said the only serious concern in their old home was an old refrigerator, which was replaced within two weeks. With a new home now, the Boshaws are looking to stay at Fort Cavazos for another two years.
“(Today) was just absolutely exciting,” he said. “Just knowing that that ribbon symbolizes truly the opening of this village and that residents are going to start moving in and it's going to be junior-enlisted oriented.”
The new houses in Heritage Heights each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a two-car garage. The home that the Boshaw family will vacate is a duplex with a shared driveway and two bedrooms.
“The house is really open,” Allison Boshaw said. “It is way more family oriented because in our old house the kitchen is completely closed off. If I'm cooking, I can't really talk to everybody in the living room.”
When they were told their home would be demolished and they could apply for the new homes, Allison said she filled everything out as quickly as possible.
Since the couple would have had to move regardless, the Army is paying for their move to the new house.
Another 42 homes should be finished by the end of the year, base officials said. During construction, Lendlease maintained about 70% of the trees that existed on the property and will add walking paths, community gardens and a dog park.
“These aren’t homes for our senior leaders, these are homes for our junior soldiers,” Col. Chad Foster, Fort Cavazos garrison commander, said during the ceremony. “Because we say it all the time, we recruit individuals, but we retain families. How do we retain families? We take care of them, show them what they mean to us. This is one very, very visible manifestation of that.”
