This Army veteran is giving voice to services members stuck in crummy barracks

Recurring reports of bad conditions in military barracks prompted one veteran to design and launch an app. Styled somewhat after Yelp, Hots&Cots lets enlisted barracks residents post reviews, reports of mold, bugs or rodents. The founder of Hots&Cots, Rob Evans, joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss more.

Interview transcript:

Tom Temin Mr. Evans, good to have you with us.

Rob Evans Thank you for having me, Tom.

Tom Temin And you were a software programmer during your 12 years in the Army, correct?

Rob Evans No, that’s what I do now, my full time job. When I was in the Army, I was 42 Alpha administration, and then I had a secondary MOS as a petroleum fuel specialist as a dealer.

Tom Temin Okay. And this idea of bad barracks, moldy barracks, rundown places that are actually health hazardous. This is something that came to your attention, how?

Rob Evans The Government Accountability report released in September of last year was really the the catalyst for me to start Hots&Cots. If you’ve served in the military for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with the living conditions of being subpar and or maybe you’ve had a great experience, but it’s nothing new to those who have served or currently serving, the conditions.

Tom Temin Right? Some barracks are kind of spiffy and new, and others have been there since the 1940s or whenever, and are not so nice and new.

Rob Evans Correct. Yes, there are some really old barracks that need quite refurbishing and to be honest, probably just torn down and start over.

Tom Temin All right. And tell us about Hots&Cots. What exactly does the app do?

Rob Evans Yeah, So Hots&Cots started, comes from the term “three hots and a cot.” And my parents said, when you graduate high school, you can go to the military, you go to college, but get a job, but you can’t stay here. Military gives you three hots and a cot. So that’s where the name comes from. You said it’s very similar to Yelp. You can leave reviews to show what the barracks look like, the great ones, and not-so-great ones. I’ve expanded, also, you can do this for dining facilities and I’ve expanded to other parts of the facility as well, such as the gyms, lactation rooms for moms that serve, and also your medical clinics, if you need to go and get seen by a provider.

Tom Temin By the way, the expression I heard was “three hots and a flop.” But that was referring to prison maybe, and not military life. I guess you get a concrete cot, maybe in prison. And what are you doing to get the word out? I mean, you were written up in Task and Purpose, which is a pretty widespread publication. How’s the take up been so far?

Rob Evans Yeah. So it’s it’s been a grassroots movement. I founded it, developed it and the social media aspect, I have some that help out behind the scenes with spreading the word but that’s been the driving force is just getting the word out to others that have served this avenue to be heard, because junior enlisted don’t always feel that they’re being heard by leadership.

Tom Temin Right. And is it available on the standard stores where people go on their phones to get apps?

Rob Evans Yes, it’s available on iOS, Android. I have a website feed, hotscots.app, that you can also go check out. There’s no ads. I wanted the bar to be very low so it’s free. There’s no ads. There’s no tracking. It’s it’s like I said, the bar is very low. And to get users on it and to be using it.

Tom Temin And how do you know the users are real and that what they post is actually happening?

Rob Evans Yeah. So a lot of the times I’ll reach out to the users after they make a post to see if there’s anything I can do to help with their situation. I’ve been able to form some great working relationships with some installations and some leaders behind the scenes, and I can get the details from that user and be able to kind of cut through some of that red tape to get these issues seen by leaders, because there are leaders out there who do want to help, but they’re getting bogged down by other systems, other barriers. And also it’s to a degree, service to those who kind of lost faith in the system and getting their issues resolved. And they also have a team of volunteers that help out behind the scenes that are veterans and those currently serving that that will also help to add validity to an issue. After serving 12 years in military, you kind of see what issues are maybe legitimate or not.

Tom Temin We’re speaking with Rob Evans. He’s creator of the Hot&Cots app for reporting barracks conditions and dining halls and so forth. And well, what are some of the things that have come to light through the app so far?

Rob Evans So, some of the things I’ve come to add come to light is, you know, there are some great leaders who are really advocating for their service members, but also that the military hasn’t made as much progression as I would hope since September when the Government Accountability report came out. We’re still seeing issues with mold. We’re still seeing issues with lack of air conditioning in the summer months, especially in the south. That’s hard. You see issues still with discoloring of water. I had one service member whose new room had a wasp nest in his room. So we’re still seeing issues and we need some action now from the Department of Defense to really get these issues resolved sooner rather than later.

Tom Temin And have you been able to get some of them resolved by virtue of being reported in Hots&Cots?

Rob Evans Yes. Yes, we have. I’ve had service members moved out of a room. They’ve reported out mold in their room. They were having health issues. And I was able to get that service member with working with the leadership, get them out of that room and into a new room and be able to get air conditioning turned back on through connections I’ve made because service members don’t necessarily have control over their air conditioning.

Tom Temin Right. And I mean, who is generally responsible for conditions of barracks is at the base commander or someone else? Maybe not local?

Rob Evans That’s a good question and it’s very complex. You know, you have the installation commander over it, but then you have maybe DPW, Department of Public Works, who maintain the barracks, but then you also have barracks managers who also kind of maintain the condition of the barracks. It’s kind of a multi-tiered kind of system going on of who manages it and takes care of these barracks. And it’s not always clear to a junior service member who takes care of them. They just know that I have mold in my room when I come back from maybe a week long leave, or I have mold in my shower, but I clean it continuously.

Tom Temin Sure. And the other issue that’s been bedeviling the military is the condition of apartment housing that may be nearby a base or maybe on a base different from barracks. And a lot of those are privately operated. Is that also what you’re including in Hots&Cots?

Rob Evans So, yes, as of now, I’ve been starting to get more reports of those. When I started Hots&Cots, my focus was more in the barracks, but I’m seeing more that there’s also impacts housing issues. I talked to many families where they have mold in their house, and because housing is privatized in the military, it’s a little bit different and how it’s handled. You have these companies that manage it and maintain them, and they’re not always maintaining them to the best standard. So you have service members living with mold. Just this weekend, I was helping a soldier in a housing issue where their bathroom pipe busted.

Tom Temin And now you mentioned this is kind of your non day job, something you do evenings and weekends. It sounds like if you get thousands and thousands of downloads, it could be a little overwhelming.

Rob Evans Yes, it is. Can be a little overwhelming, especially with two kids. And, you know, my family life, it can be a bit overwhelming. But, you know, I want to be able to give back to the military. The military did a lot for me when I was in, and I still want to make an impact for those that are in and one day for my kids if they want to join.

Tom Temin Did you ever live in barracks when you were a soldier?

Rob Evans Yes. So I did six years in the reserve and six in the Guard. And at times we did deploy and we were deployed and we would go to installations and support it out during OEF and OIF. And we did stay in the barracks. And some of them weren’t the best, not nearly as bad as they are now. But I did have some issues with mold and such.

Tom Temin And how many downloads have you gotten so far for the app?

Rob Evans Yeah. So since launch in October of last year I’m closing in on 9,000 downloads. We have now just over 400 posts of reported, not just I want to say reported issues, but reviews. I will say reviews, good and bad.

Tom Temin What about the dining, by the way? That’s part of what you said can be reported here. What do people say about dining as a general public understanding? Is that base shipboard and etc. food is probably above average?

Rob Evans Yeah, there are some good installations that are doing great food wise. Fort Meade is one. They have some great food wise choices. But this morning I just had a post and somebody reviewed their cream cheese was full of mold. We see that issue. I see chicken that’s raw still. So we, I see the gamut of things with dining facilities as well. You know, some great meals out there. But then there’s also some dining facilities that aren’t doing the best.

Tom Temin You know, so, eat raw chicken and then go throw up in a moldy bathroom. That’s not a great life for a soldier, is it?

Rob Evans Correct. And then try to get in to see a provider when you’re sick, you may not be able to immediately.

Tom Temin Well, let’s hope Hots&Cots helps. Rob Evans is the creator of the app Hots&Cots. Thanks so much for joining me.

Rob Evans Thank you very much. Thanks for having me on.

Tom Temin And we’ll post this interview along with a link to Hots&Cots at federalnewsnetwork.com/federaldrive. Subscribe to the Federal Drive wherever you get your podcasts.

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