The base that we live on is in the process of privatising it's housing.

That means that the government will sell the housing to a civilian company who will collect rent and be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the houses.  Each military member will have to set up an allotment out of their paycheck so that the rent is taken out automatically each payday.

This idea, whilst it sounds good in theory, actually may end up screwing some of the residents.  Like us.

Military members have an entitlement called BAH - Basic Allowance for Housing.  The government gives us money for rent or a mortgage.  The amount you get is dependent on your rank and the area in which you reside.

Dave's a TSgt (E-6).  For this area and his rank (with dependents) he's entitled to a little over $1100 a month.

We don't get that money, because we live on-base in military family housing.  We don't get it, we don't even see it, it's not included in our monthly paycheck in any shape or form.

This privatisation will mean that he'll be paying his FULL BAH, all $1100 of it, for the house that we currently reside in.

$1100 a month for this shit-hole that we live in.  Our lighting dims everytime the a/c or heating kicks in, which probably means the wiring isn't up to code.  We can see daylight between the external doors and the frame.  The tile floor is all chipped and cracked, the base boards are falling off, none of the internal doors shut properly because the house is sinking (we've got cracks all over the ceilings and walls to further that happening).  The outside window frames are so rotten that when I leant up against one this summer when I was planting my roses my thumbs wnet right through it,and the inside frames are cracked, chipped and falling apart.  The water heater is so tempremental that some days the 'hot' water is more like warm, and the toilets are coming away from the floors.  The yard is nothing but a series of mole holes, and the shed outside is not big enough to swing a cat in. 

We've called housing maintenance NUMEROUS times to ask them to fix all these problems.  Their response is usually "well, these houses are old, ya know.  They're going to have problems.  Besides, they're going to be moving y'all out of here soon enough....".  Wonderful....you want us to live here and pay for it, but you don't wanna fix it, and you won't let us do any fixing of our own.  That's great.

If this house was to be rented on the civilian market, I think that $650 a month would be the most someone would pay for it in its current condition.

But because we're military, we're expected to 'fess up his entire BAH for it.  $1100...and to add insult to injury, they're planning to make us pay for utilities.  Can you imagine the cost of heating and cooling a house where none of the doors fir sungly?  Where the window sills on the inside are all cracked?  It's going to be insane.

So, why don't you move off base, you ask?  Good question, and here's the answer:  the military has been planning this privatisiation for over a year, but has told us all to wait and NOT sign any leases downtown until they give us a firm date for this all to start so they could pay for us to move.  "You'll get plenty of notice", we were told.

Today, they sent us a letter telling us when we had to be out of military housing by.  Today is the 3rd of October. People who want to move out of military housing have to be out no later than November 30th. That's less than 2 months.  That's NOT plenty of time.  Less than 2 months to come up with first and last months rent and/or a security deposit, deposits for utilities, changes in school systems for children...there's a bunch of expenses that we would have to cover.  Not to mention that Christmas is coming up.  It's not very well times at all.

So, Dave and I have decided to stay in military housing.  We found out today that the houses that we live in currently are slated for demolition, and the government will be building NEW homes at an off-base location that we will be moved into.  I've seen the plans for these new homes, and they're gorgeous......places that would be WELL worth $1100 a month in rent.  But here's the rub: they're not going to be ready to move into for a couple of years.  They haven't selected the exact site yet, construction hasn't begun and isn't even slated to begin.  So, we're going to be stuck in this house for (I estimate) another 2 years. 

Here's another kicker for you:  that $1100 that we currently don't see, that doesn't affect his taxes or anything else?  Yeah, they're going to include that on his Leave and Earning Statement.  That's going to screw up our taxes and a whole bunch of other stuff.....but we're going to be no better off.  They give it to us with one hand, and they take it away with another.  We LOOK richer than we actually are.

There's going to be a town hall meeting on the 17th to talk about these privatization plans.  I'm going, and I have some questions that I'd really like answers to.  Like how they can justify charging $1100 a month for a house that, if it were surveyed tomorrow, wouldn't pass inspection.  I want to know if they plan to make improvements to these houses before we start having to pay utility bills...because I don't think it fair of them to ask us to pay for electricity, gas and water until they make some pretty radical repairs.

I've learned over the years that the military has a way of doing things that sometimes defies all logic and sense.

This housing gig is a prime example of that.