Residential Communities Initiative Rci

The Army's nationwide Residential Community Initiative (RCI) provides a new vision for solving an old problem. Years of funding shortfalls and resource allocation decisions created a significant deterioration in the construction repair and maintenance of housing. The Department of the Army with Congressional support started RCI in an effort to leverage private funds through a partnering arrangement to stem this decline and improve family and soldier Quality of Life (QOL) overall service member satisfaction and retention in the all-volunteer Army. Congress conceived this program with legislation approved in 1996. Since that time changes in the environment like September 11, 2001 the Global War on Terrorism and Operations Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Iraqi Freedom in Iraq continue to impact all Army programs. Other new initiatives under review by the Chief of Staff of the Army also have the potential to affect the RCI program. The purpose of this paper is to examine RCI and assess program progress determine its ability to meet stated goals identify areas of concern and recommend solutions to current emerging and future challenges.