Alliance advocates steady rise in BAH - Military Housing - Military Times

Alliance advocates steady rise in BAH

If Congress is unwilling to make a one-time adjustment in the residence standards used to set the basic allowance for housing, a group of military and veterans associations suggests phasing in higher rates over several years.

And they would like the phase-in to begin with the 2010 defense budget.

The National Military/Veterans Alliance — 31 organizations representing service members and the businesses involving in personnel-related morale, welfare and recreation programs — has called for a phased approach to address a long-standing complaint that BAH does not provide enough money to cover suitable housing for members living off base.

The chief reason that housing allowances fall short is that rates are based on standards that assume only senior enlisted members and midgrade and senior officers should live in single-family housing, with most enlisted members and junior officers living in apartments or townhouses.

The current standards were set in 1998, when BAH was established as a payment based on paygrade, family status and location. Although there were widespread complaints about the standards, only one small change was made while Congress and the Pentagon worked on what was viewed as a more pressing issue — the fact that initial rates still left people 15 percent short of covering average rental costs even if they lived in the type of housing deemed appropriate for their paygrade and family status under the military regulations.

From 2001 through 2005, the shortfall in rates was reduced slightly each year. At the time, defense officials acknowledged the housing standards needed revising but said they wanted to wait until they finished one round of increases before starting a second.

The follow-on effort to revise the housing standards never happened, aside from a small change to boost payments for junior enlisted members.

“If you said you are going to do it, you should do it,” said retired Navy Capt. Ike Puzon of the Naval Reserve Association. “An E-5 with a family may not want to live in a town house but wants to be in a home, because an officer with the same family size gets enough [BAH] to be in a single-family home.”

The alliance does not propose a schedule for phasing in changes. But the idea would be to raise payments a little each year above actual increases in average rents.