(The Hill) — The National Guard said Thursday it is moving ahead with a $292 million housing plan that would provide “up to 2,000 apartment-style lodging units” for Guard members deployed in Washington, D.C.
The contract, awarded to corporate lodging firm Placemakr, marks the largest interagency lodging acquisition ever made by the National Guard. Placemakr has previously worked with Hilton on an apartment-style hospitality collection in Phoenix, Ariz.
The announcement has drawn criticism from local activists, who have raised concerns that officials have not specified when the National Guard deployment in D.C. will end. The newly announced lodging contract also does not list an end date.
A Guard official confirmed to The Hill in July that the Pentagon is expected to maintain a National Guard presence in Washington through Inauguration Day 2029. That plan is still awaiting approval from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and if cleared, would keep Guard members in the capital unless the president orders a change.
Hegseth has publicly backed the deployment, addressing service members in July and thanking them for their work in the nation’s capital.
Officials said the contract is tied to requirements in Executive Order 14252, which established the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force. Guard members have been stationed in Washington for roughly 11 months as part of an effort by President Trump and other officials to reduce crime and “beautify” the city.
“You’ve [guard members] done over 530 medical assistances to personnel, you restored children back to their families 27 times, and you have done amazing things in support of law enforcement to make sure we reduce crime,” the National Guard wrote.
Nearly a year into the mission, about 5,150 National Guard troops remain in Washington, including 599 members of the D.C. National Guard and 4,403 troops from 21 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The contract for housing these troops was completed in 85 days, which the agency claims is faster than other comparable contract timelines. It also reported that the accelerated timeline received some agency-level vendor protest.
The new housing project adds onto what the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated cost of deployment at $3 million daily. With Sens. Gary Peters (D‑Mich.) and Andy Kim (D‑N.J.) reporting in February that the cost of deployment for taxpayers is nearly $1.65 million.
This lodging deal, the National Guard claims, is nearly 50 percent cheaper than the projected costs from paying for commercial hotels.
