Rant [Military Issues] I Hate Our Current Housing Situation!!

[ShelbyMichalek]

So this is just a typical rant. I don't want to share it on Facebook because it doesn't feel right.

So we currently live in Privatized Housing that we rent through the Air Force (my husband's branch of service.) When we moved here in June with our son, they put us in a older two bedroom house, this would be fine except they also are putting men of the same rank or one rank above that have no children in brand new 3 and 4 bedroom houses. Rising View, the name of the housing place, has no real rules set in place and they're very good at screwing people over. My problem is not the only one. Many women here are dissatisfied with the service we're recieving. I hear it at all our Spouses meeting and our church group of military spouses as well.

Since we're pregnant and I'm about 19 weeks, we went to apply to be moved to a larger house. They're telling us there is a waiting list until at least April n(which is AFTER my due date) to be moved to a three bedroom house. They won't put us in one of the 35+ empty four bedroom houses because we "don't NEED one that big."
{Yea, and the married men and single men need 3 and 4 bedrooms houses more than we do }

I'm frustrated because we're in a 1-year lease so we can't move from privatized housing until at least June anyway and even in June, we won't be able to afford to rent a house somewhere else because our BAH is less than 1k. I'm hoping my husband can talk the AF in to approving us for a 4bdr just by telling them the nasty situation, but I doubt anyone in that office will budge.


Such a frustrating time for me!! :grumpy:

 

[Intrepid_Chef]

Don't they give you a housing allowance to offset the cost of any housing you want?My family members, also both air force, were upset that when they moved, their allowance went down, even though the cost of housing there was higher.

 

[ShelbyMichalek]

Well the thing is, they pay a certain housing allowance based on a person's rank & location. Then, when you live in the housing provided by the military, your "rent" is the exact cost of your housing allowance (meaning if my husband's rank were to go up and we were living in the same house, the rent would go up to the exact new housing allowance without the house changing at all) The housing allowance would be sufficient for some small places around here for rental cost, but wouldn't be enough to pay for any utilities - which are included in our current housing situation.

 

[Sheila]

I hear you girl! They have a scale that they work from. Rank warrants more rooms. So an E7 with no children would have more rooms than an E1-E6 with the same family size.

In Okinawa, if they were single they had to live in the barracks or out in town.
Married E1-E6 got a 2 bedroom.
Married E1-E6 w/ 1 child got a 2 bedroom.
Married E1-E6 w/ 2 children got a 3 bedroom.
At that point, they looked at the age & gender of the children. If there were 2 boys or 2 girls close enough in age to share, a lower rank with 3 children didn't automatically get a 4 bedroom ... 2 children might have to share.
Married E7 automatically qualified for a 3 bedroom

The old phrase "rank has it's priviledges" is soooooo true!

But then the officers ... some had really NICE housing & some didn't. I walked into an O3's house once and was shocked! There's no way I'd have traded our (E5 when we took the assignment) 2 bedroom, with an office that worked as a 3rd bedroom for the baby - rehab'd unit for the O3's 3 bedroom! Yick!!! It was old, worn down looking & the base controlled their heat & air! They couldn't even turn on/off the A/C or Heat!!! I had a nice rehab unit, new appliances, covered parking, quiet street ... we could have moved when I got pregnant with Connor, but chose to stay. We loved our neighbors, our apartment and the area.

Now that I'm in Tokyo, we were shoved into a 922 square foot townhome! All of our long-term storage stuff was sent here, so we have everything from Okinawa + everything from the states. And only 922 sq feet to put it. I'm still buried in boxes & donating stuff right & left!

If your hubby has just sewn on his rank & wasn't being paid yet ... it might be why you got offered a smaller place. EX: If your hubby was E5 on paper when you took the housing, E6 and E7 on paper would probably get a better offer. The air force considers E6 the step up to NCO where the Navy consideres it at E7.

Then again, it may have just been luck of the draw! They had to fill a vacancy & you happened to be next on the list.

 

[ShelbyMichalek]

Yes Sheila, a system like that would be nice. But there isn't one here!
My husband is an E-3 and we arrived at the same time as two guys that he graduated tech-school with. All 3 are E-3's. The other two are married with no children. Both men got brand new houses. One received a 3 bed, other a 4 bed. We live in one of their older 2 bed. Icky?! Yes.
I think it would be fantastic for them to have a system like the one you mentioned. It wouldnt get us into a better house, but it would mean this place actually had a system! Which it DOESN'T!!

 

[nikked]

Unfortunately, having been through the transition to privatized housing at our current base and hearing stories from others, it seems like the offices don't really have a good system in place when they start assigning houses.

Here, they were letting folks move into the three and four bedrooms at the beginning, regardless of rank or if they had ANY children. Then, the privatized housing folks started getting in trouble because houses weren't available for those who actually needed them. So, they really had to buckle down.

Absolutely, get your shirt and/or commander involved...you'll be amazed at how quickly things change...

Are your houses scheduled to be torn down/remodeled? If they are, the housing folks may be wanting to wait to move you...they (or maybe the airforce?) have to pay for the moves into the new houses, and if they move you out ahead of time and someone else into your house in the meantime, they'd be out extra money...

There is a lot of hanky-panky that goes on with the privatized folks (IMHO one of the best ideas, with (unfortunately) the worst executions), and you have to just keep trying...but be nice, or when you move out, you'll be SOL (they tend to hold a grudge!)

Good luck!