National Guard awards $292 million contract to provide ‘apartment-style’ housing for troops in DC

WASHINGTON — The National Guard Bureau has awarded a $292 million contract to Placmakr to provide up to 2,000 apartment-style lodging units for troops mobilized to the nation’s capital.

“We brought 2,500 Guardsmen in from 15 states and the District of Columbia, and you all have done an amazing job,” Gen. Steve Nordhaus, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told troops while addressing them in July. “[Since arriving] you saved over 235 lives. You’ve done over 530 medical assistances to personnel, you restored children back to their families 27 times, and you have done amazing things in support of law enforcement to make sure we reduce crime.”

The apartments will be “a long-term solution” for deployed troops, who have been staying in hotels, according to a National Guard news release. The National Guard Bureau did not say when the lodging would be available.

President Donald Trump initially mobilized 800 D.C. National Guard troops as part of D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, an effort to reduce crime in Washington in August 2025. That number quickly grew to more than 2,000.

Nearly 5,000 troops from more than 20 states have been mobilized to help support the America 250 celebrations in the region.

Guard personnel have been spread across tourist corridors, transit hubs such as Union Station, federal buildings, monuments, parks and public spaces.

Property crime dropped by nearly a quarter following the surge of troops, but the deployment had little to no effect on violent crimes, according to a May report from the Niskanen Center, a nonpartisan think tank.

“It was an expensive tool deployed in the wrong places for the wrong types of crime,” the study authors wrote, comparing the average daily cost of $607 to employ a Guard member in D.C. with the $384 for Metropolitan Police Department officers. 

The apartments will provide personnel with more stable living conditions, improved privacy, better quality of life, and access to secure parking and consolidated support services, the Guard said.

“This contract delivers stable, secure housing for our soldiers and airmen while achieving significant cost savings for the government,” said Monica Williams, executive director of acquisitions and head of contracting activity for the National Guard Bureau.

The National Guard will remain deployed in Washington through Inauguration Day 2029, the Pentagon said in a statement.