The Department of Defense wants to cut military moves by 50%, how that could affect Colorado Springs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — The Department of Defense is directing American military departments to identify ways to cut military moves in half within the next five years.

According to a May 22 memo released publicly last week, each military department has 120 days to develop a proposal for how permanent change of station (PCS) moves can be decreased by 50% by fiscal year 2030. The memo calls for a gradual PCS decrease with a 10% cut next fiscal year, 30% in FY 2028, and 40% in FY 2029.

The Department of Defense (DoD) memo, written by Jules Hurst, who is performing the duties of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, said the DoD spends $5 billion annually on PCS moves and this is a method to cut federal spending.

But the memo also notes PCS moves “can reduce the quality of life for Service members and their families, harm spousal employment, and disrupt functional communities, unit cohesion, and long-term talent management.”

PCS moves can typically occur every two to four years for military members, meaning new orders send them off to a new duty station either elsewhere in the U.S. or abroad.

Newly elected Colorado Springs City Councilor Kimberly Gold is a military child turned military spouse, so she’s all too familiar with military life, moving around the country and world.

“All the way from Fort Stewart, Georgia, which is South Georgia, to Fort Richardson, Alaska,” Gold said. “I've gone to Kuwait, I've been to Germany, I've been to Korea, I've been all over.”

Gold and her family were stationed at Fort Carson in 2021. Because their high school son was about to graduate, they received a stabilization, meaning their duty station in Colorado was extended. That’s allowed Gold to embed herself in the community and run for city council.

She wants that experience to extend to other military families, so she said the new DoD directive to decrease PCS moves is a good start.

“Most military families out of pocket are spending upwards of $5,000 for each military move,” Gold said about the downsides of PCS moves. “Now multiply that by 10 military moves, or even eight military moves, and then you think about the lack of stabilization without being able to purchase a home, not knowing how long you're going to be there.”

Data from the 2024 Military Family Lifestyle Survey released by Blue Star Families in January showed that almost a third of active-duty service members and spouses cited PCS issues as a top concern.

“For the past three years, active-duty family respondents have consistently reported that housing costs, relocation costs, and spouse unemployment and underemployment are the top contributors to their families’ financial stress,” the survey also noted.

According to stats from Fort Carson, there are almost 90,000 people associated with the installation, including soldiers, families, civilian employees, and reserves.

When PCS orders come in, whoever leaves is always replaced by someone else, meaning those numbers aren’t likely to fluctuate too much.

However, as a Fort Carson spokesperson noted, a PCS move could send a larger military family elsewhere and only bring in a single soldier, which could end up having downstream effects on the economy.

But others, including local economists, seemed to think a decrease in PCS moves could benefit the southern Colorado economy.

“I would think this will lower turnover in real estate- fewer transactions, though if people are coming for longer stints that might shift them more towards buying vs renting,” said Dr. Bill Craighead, a local economist and director of the UCCS Economic Forum. “This also might help spouses with employment.”

Jason Anderson, a former Army aviation officer, is now a real estate broker with Solid Oak Realty and Veteran PCS, a company that focuses on helping military families deal with PCS moves around the country.

He agreed with Dr. Craighead in predicting that this DoD memo would lead to a more stable housing market.

“It's not like there's just less people moving to Colorado Springs if PCS is getting cut in half,” Anderson said. “It really means, okay, there's less people moving in, but there's also an equal amount of people that are not moving out.”

Anderson also said it could pump more money into the local economy if more people are staying here longer in the sense that they’ll continue spending money at local shops and restaurants that they’ve come to favor.

He also highlighted how adversely military spouses are affected by the current model of constant PCS moves. Anderson said they’re often underemployed, not able to work a role they’re qualified for.

“It's a huge problem. A lot of times military spouses, they'll move to a new base,” he said. “And when you're interviewing for a job, a lot of times you know they will not hire a military spouse, because they know that there's no longevity.”

Elected leaders like Republican Congressman Jeff Crank, who represents much of El Paso County, said he’d be in support of this DoD directive even though he’s a proponent of providing more money to the defense budget.

“If you can do that without affecting readiness, that's a win-win for our military,” Rep. Crank said. “I think it helps us on retention as well as cost saving.”

Email Senior Reporter Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@koaa.com. Follow @brettforrestTVon X and Brett Forrest News on Facebook.

Brett can also communicate via encrypted apps like Signal. Due to the sensitive nature of ongoing reporting from federal actions, he is willing to take steps to protect identities.

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