New military moving contract sparks concern among military families

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Spring often marks the start of moving season for military families, but any of them preparing to move may want to do their research, as some say the Defense Department’s new military moving contract with HomeSafe Alliance is creating problems for them.

“It’s never easy to move whether you are military or not,” said Sarah Gilliam, a military spouse and real estate agent. “There’s always so many moving parts and nuances but with the military it definitely adds some extra layers.”

Historically, the military has covered permanent change of station moves, working with hundreds of moving companies to complete them. That was done under the Legacy Military Move System, called the Tender of Service Program.

Now there’s a new contract, the Global Household Goods Contract, which gives just one company, HomeSafe Alliance, the job. Gilliam said that change has sparked questions.

“There is the new military contract with HSA,” Gilliam said. “There’s a lot of chatter about it in the military community.”

A HomeSafe Alliance spokesperson said the company performed its first moves in 2024. Some of those moves, however, haven’t gone as planned.

“It’s all of their household belongings just thrown in something like a freight truck with no straps on it,” Gilliam said. “There is a huge lack of oversight between the packers and HSA communicating.”

Another HomeSafe Alliance spokesperson offered more insight on those claims saying:

“Freight is one of HomeSafe Alliance’s effective, efficient, and secure means of transporting household goods. We carefully vet our service providers to ensure their freight trucks are equipped with air ride suspension technology, which absorbs shocks and vibrations to protect even the most fragile household goods.“

A full statement from HomeSafe Alliance reads:

“Regardless of how HomeSafe transports household goods, loads must always be properly secured. We hold ourselves and our service providers to the highest standards to protect the household goods of our service members and their families. In any case where a load was not secured, it does not meet our commitment to quality, and we take swift and appropriate action to address the issue and prevent recurrence.

“HomeSafe Alliance is modernizing, digitizing, and transforming the relocation experience for military members and their families through the new Global Household Goods Contract (GHC). Military families and Congress demanded this historic transformation to address long-standing issues with the old military move system. The new GHC program brings innovative technology to streamline the move process, a 24/7 customer care center to support military families, and strict requirements to ensure accountability and high-quality move services.

In these early and developmental stages of the GHC, logistical challenges have caused delays for some moves. we apologize to every affected family. HomeSafe is taking all the lessons learned and continually improving our systems and processes, including enhancing our customer care operations, updating our technology platform, reshaping our training program for service providers, and hiring additional employees. over the last few weeks, we have made significant progress in working through challenges and strengthening our network of service providers.“

— HomeSafe Alliance

“I think that there is an area for improvement,” Gilliam said, “and we just have to stay positive and hope that that gets there.”

For military families who don’t want to take the risk, they can opt to pay for their move out of pocket, but a Change.org petition alludes to the new contract also impacting reimbursement rates.

The Army specifically states that “several items in the petition are inaccurate and risk misleading Soldiers about their actual move entitlements.” You can review the full document here.

For military families who don’t want to take the risk with the new moving company just yet, they can opt to pay for their move out-of-pocket and get reimbursed later, but the new moving contract also means reimbursements may look different.

“HSA has come in and said that they can do these moves for 30% to 50% cheaper than the industry standard, so what that means for military members is that their allotment for repayment for these moves is 30% to 50% less than what they would’ve gotten several years ago,” Gilliam said.

To learn more about the new contract, click here. If you’re moving to the area, you can connect with real estate agent Sarah Gilliam here.