The entrance sign at Naval Air Station Key West, Fla. Families who lived at the base reported illnesses and financial losses from ruined properties and unreimbursed hotel stays during their times as tenants in three communities there, according to a lawsuit brought by 192 current and former residents.  (U.S. Navy)

Mold, asbestos, leaky roofs and pests plagued Balfour Beatty-owned housing on Naval Air Station Key West in Florida for years while the company often claimed to have mitigated the problems while doing little to alleviate them, a federal lawsuit filed Thursday by dozens of military families charged.

Families reported illnesses and financial losses from ruined properties and unreimbursed hotel stays during their times as tenants in three communities Balfour owns on NAS Key West, according to the lawsuit brought by 192 current and former residents. The complaint describes a nickname for persistent respiratory problems among children living in one of the Balfour communities as the “Sigsbee cough” for the company’s Sigsbee Park, which is made up of some 500 two- and three-bedroom townhouse units on the post that were built in the 1960s.

“Ceiling collapses, water damage, faulty air conditioning, structural defects, pest infestations, and exposure to toxic mold and asbestos were all part of these families’ day-to-day existence at their Balfour homes,” reads the lawsuit filed by Robert J. McKee and five other attorneys. “Predictably, these unsafe, unhealthy, and hazardous living conditions led to devasting health consequences for these families.”

Privatized on-post housing at U.S. military installations across the United States and overseas have faced increase scrutiny in recent years after dozens of news reports uncovered unsafe and even unlivable conditions in the dwellings owned and operated by third party companies, including Balfour. Balfour Beatty owns and manages more than 43,000 homes on 55 U.S. military installations, including about 700 on NAS Key West. The company has faced scrutiny from Congress and others for the conditions in some of its homes for years.

“We are aware of the complaint and intend to defend ourselves vigorously,” a spokesperson for Balfour Beatty Communities wrote in an email Friday about the new lawsuit.

In December 2021, Balfour pleaded guilty to defrauding the U.S. military and was ordered to pay $33.6 million in criminal fines and another $31.8 million in restitution to the military, according to the Justice Department. In that case, Balfour was accused of misleading military officials about performing maintenance on its properties and collecting performance incentives for work never completed.

The new lawsuit claims Balfour authorities at NAS Key West have since misled their tenants about the conditions of the housing units that they were renting, failing to address issues in a timely manner and fraudulently marking maintenance issues addressed without resolving the problems.

“Balfour employees ignored work orders even when residents called daily,” according to the lawsuit. “When they did respond, Balfour technicians and contractors provided grossly subpar maintenance, and often made matters much worse. This included covering wet and drooping ceilings with shiplap and painting over mold rather than remediating it.”

Vice Adm. Scott Gray, commander of Navy Installations Command, inspects a house ceiling at Naval Air Station Key West’s Sigsbee Park annex during a site visit Oct. 8, 2024. (U.S. Navy)

The suit details the experiences of dozens of families who reported serious health conditions from mold and asbestos exposure, including asthma, vertigo, joint pain and fatigue.

Sailor Caleb Guess and his wife Victoria reported their children developed the Sigsbee cough within months of moving into their unit on NAS Key West in 2022. One of the couple’s children, who had always been healthy, developed “chronic nosebleeds, hives and severe facial swelling” while living in the Key West home, according to the lawsuit.

Another one of their children, a high school-aged daughter who sought to join the Air Force, developed recurrent pneumonia leading her to need daily medication and steroids “to maintain her oxygen levels.”

“Upon learning that her respiratory issues could jeopardize her dreams of joining the Air Force as a pilot, [the daughter] suffered emotionally,” the lawsuit reads. “She became resentful, believing that the military forced her into an environment that compromised her future by remaining silent in the face of the fact that the people responsible for maintaining the living quarters housing military families were not living up to their obligations.”

When a crack in the Guess’ ceiling eventually led the family to leave the home for a hotel, the daughter’s symptoms disappeared within two weeks, according to the suit.

“These types of nightmarish experiences with Balfour housing are, regrettably, no outlier,” the lawsuit reads. “These health effects can be traced to the mold and other environmental hazards to which the families were exposed every day. Understandably, the continuous stress the families experienced as a direct result of having to live with both the deplorable housing conditions they were subjected to by Balfour and the effects these conditions had on their physical health and well-being have also led them to suffer severe mental anguish and emotional distress.”