Is Military Housing in Need of a Shake Up?
- Dose-of-Ray
- Apr 17, 2019
- 6 min read
Military housing has been a hot topic lately. Specifically, the poor conditions of the homes on military bases across the country. On February 13, 2019, The Senate Armed Services Committee heard heartbreaking testimonies from several military families that were forced to live in unsafe and unhealthy homes containing black mold, lead paint, and pests. Here’s a snapshot of the story from CBS:
But I highly recommend that you read the full testimonies here:
A Little Background Info First
I find that a common misconception about military housing is that these homes on base are provided to military families for free. This is absolutely false. Every month, our basic allowance for housing (BAH) is paid directly to the privatized contractors that provide housing on military bases. If a family elects to live off base, they’re free to use the allowance however they choose. The BAH amount varies depending on location and increases with rank. For example, our BAH is almost $2000 more per month in California than it was in Florida due to the high cost of real estate and living here.
As a military spouse, this issue is near and dear to my heart, and I feel so strongly for the families who had to endure these hardships on top of all the stresses that are a staple of military life. With a military pilot for a husband, daily life is unpredictable. It’s been easier since our move to California because I’m not working here and therefore, can be more flexible with his ever-changing schedules, long days, and late nights. I’ll get into the management of all this chaos in another post, but all I’m trying to say now is that military life is hard.
I come from a family with strong ties to the armed forces, and I always said I was never going to marry someone in the military because I witnessed the hardships and struggles that my siblings and their families went through. Funny how my fraternity boy from LSU ended up joining the Marine Corps and here we are, 8 years later living in southern California on a military base. It’s been an amazing adventure, and although I wouldn’t trade this crazy life for anything, I do feel like the military housing issue needs to be brought to attention. Fortunately, I personally do not have any stories even remotely close to the horrific accounts of those families at the Senate hearing, but I do share some of their frustrations. Here’s my personal experience with military housing on Camp Pendleton, CA.
In true military fashion, this move happened fast. We got orders in the beginning of January stating we had to report to Camp Pendleton in early February, giving us about a month to move across the country and try to get somewhat settled in before that start date. Like many other military families, we did not have the time or money to keep flying back and forth across the country to house hunt. Plus, we knew that we would be moving to Hawaii in a few months, so our decision was only temporary. Because of this, we decided to try living on base for the first time. We had some reservations about this, but I was excited for the sense of community and safety that the base provides. So, we executed the first step – putting in an application. Here's generally how that process goes:
1) The housing company websites are pretty much useless. They are never updated and seldom have pictures. Search for Facebook groups at your new base to find pictures of housing and get recommendations from people who are living there. Housing is split into different neighborhoods depending on rank so there were several base neighborhoods for us to choose from on Camp Pendleton. Seeing pictures and hearing feedback from current residents helped us decide which one we liked best (not that we actually got our first choice…more on that later).
2) Find the housing page on the base website for information about application. For example, we went to https://www.pendleton.marines.mil/Family/Family-Housing/ and clicked on application information to find the list of documents that needed to be submitted to the housing office there.
3) If you don’t hear anything back in the next 3 days, call and make sure they got your application. I often had to call several times a day just to get through to someone. We got the runaround every day for about a week before someone finally realized that our application was sent to an employee that was on an extended vacation…We ended up having to resend our application and start the process from the beginning, wasting precious time. Persistence is key.
4) Once the housing office gets your application and you are approved, the application is sent to the company that provides housing on that particular base. They should be able to tell you what number you are on the wait list and about any housing options in other neighborhoods. We found out that we were number 9 on the wait list for our desired neighborhood and that it could be months before we got a house. That wasn’t going to work for us, considering we could already be moved on to Hawaii by then. However, they did offer us a smaller townhome in another neighborhood that we could move into within the next week. I found pictures of these homes on a Facebook page, and I checked the company website for more information. There, I saw the company were providing these homes at a flat rent, meaning we would get some of our BAH back. Save money every month?? Hell yes! Especially since I wasn't going to be able to work in California. So even though it was a townhome and smaller, the money savings convinced us to go ahead and take the house they offered us.
5) READ THE LEASE! Remember when I said the websites suck, and they’re never updated?? Well this came to bite us when we were told that we would not be getting any of our BAH back…That promotion had ended a month ago, and we signed the lease stating that we would not be receiving any “concession checks.” In other words, we would not be getting any of our BAH back like we expected. That was one of the main reasons we really didn’t mind the smaller home…because we would be saving money. Cheaper price for a smaller home – makes sense to me, but that’s not how it works for military housing. You pay the same for the three-bedroom townhome as your same-rank friend pays for their standalone four-bedroom home. Since their BAH is higher, your superior ranking neighbor pays even more for their home even though it’s the exact same as yours. Good thing I had screenshot the proof that the flat rent price was still advertised on the website. It was taken down immediately after I brought this to housing company's attention. I really had to fight them on this issue, and it took WEEKS of back and forth and talking to supervisors and managers to get this done.
On a positive note, we haven’t had many issues with our home. In fact, I was surprised by how clean and new everything looked on move in. However, we did have some electrical problems within the first day of moving in (that fried our expensive Keurig), and it took 2 days for a repairman to come. He told us that he was one of only 3 repairmen for over 6,000 homes on Camp Pendleton. I’m no expert, but that ratio seems a little off to me.
One of my fellow military spouses had water gushing from the dishwasher all over the kitchen floor, and the repairman had to argue with the housing company for them to get a new dishwasher. They wanted to charge my friend for breaking it even though she’d only been in the home for a week.
In one of the testimonies at the Senate hearing, an unnam woman stated that they were “inexplicably charged almost $700 for carpet replacement” for stains found with a blacklight and unseen by the naked eye.
Hearing these stories, it’s hard to believe that these companies back military families or even have any respect for them at all. They are granted decades-long contracts by the government and are guaranteed income for the duration, which provides little room for any accountability or recourse.
I agree 100% with the recommendations stated in the testimony of "family member #1" to address the military housing crisis:
Amend or cancel the 50-year privatized contracts to allow for competition, proper oversight, and accountability.
Provide a clear and accessible path to administrative or legal recourse, when necessary
As with civilian counterparts, military families should be able to withhold their basic housing allowances until their homes are safe and habitable.
As stated before the Senate Armed Forces Committee, “Military families understand that quality housing does not mean entitlement to elegant mansions. We simply ask for our homes free of mold, pests, lead, and other hazards…We want safe places for our children to sleep at night.” I hope the recent media attention and Senate hearings actually bring about some real changes and don’t just get swept under the rug. Our servicemen and women put their lives on the line for this country, and they deserve to have a safe place to rest their heads at night.
So is military housing in need of a shake up? My answer is yes.
Sincerely,
Ray
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