Affordability is a big housing problem for military personnel

Tom Temin And you weren’t looking at housing so much as you were looking at the quality of housing, which is another challenge for the Department of Defense. It’s just supply and the economic impact it has on stationed troops.

Alyssa Cheese Right. So in this report we looked at off-base housing. Thus, most military personnel do not actually live on base, but in a nearby local community. Therefore, we examined the extent to which military personnel and their families face challenges finding housing in local housing markets.

Tom Temin And what did you find?

Alyssa Cheese We’ve found that while the situation varies by location, there are some significant challenges military personnel face when looking to rent or buy a home near a military base. We held several focus groups with military personnel in various locations across the country, and among the concerns we heard was the housing allowance that every military member receives to cover the cost of housing. So it doesn’t really apply to some of these tighter housing markets. Supply is low, demand is high, and housing is very expensive. As a result, service members had to take on significant debt to afford housing. Some of them had to spend all their savings. Some of them had to make the difficult decision not to bring their family members on their next deployment because they could not afford off-base family housing. Some had to take part-time jobs or travel long distances to their home base due to an inability to find affordable housing.

Tom Temin Because you don’t think military bases necessarily need to be in high-rent areas, for example. It’s not like there’s a military base in Manhattan and people need to find a house in Brooklyn or something like that, expensive housing. Could it be that the presence of a base or structure creates an almost captive market that is exploited by landlords and housing providers?

Alyssa Cheese We did some analysis and found that the presence of the military does impact the housing market and can lead to higher home rents in those markets. And here we discovered several unique circumstances. For example, one of the sites we chose along with Key West in Florida. And according to military estimates, there should be plenty of rental housing in Key West. What was happening there when we were digging was that landlords were holding back rentals for vacationers so they could get higher rents from vacationers coming to that market. Thus, although many of these properties were empty, they were inaccessible to the military personnel stationed there.

Tom Temin Yeah. Thus, the basis for housing is as important as water for housing in Venice, for example. And so it varies a little by region, with the exception of Key West. What other high-cost areas pose a particular problem?

Alyssa Cheese So, there were about seven sites in our sample. And, as you might expect, Hawaii was another place where affordable housing was difficult to find. Mountain Home, Idaho was also a place you might not have thought about, but many service members couldn’t find affordable housing near the base and had to make long commutes, sometimes in dangerous weather, to get to the base. . And then we discovered that other sites really weren’t having this problem. So, military personnel at Fort Bliss or Camp Lejeune told us that their housing benefits largely covered the cost of their housing, and they had no major problems. But it did vary by location.

Tom Temin We’re talking to Alyssa Cheese. She is the Director of Defense Capabilities and Management Affairs at GAO. And in your report you said that the Department of Defense could have done a little better assessment of the situation towards its possible resolution. Tell us what you think they should do.

Alyssa Cheese We believe that the Department of Defense simply needs better information so they can make some decisions and take actions to help service members. For example, each military service is required to conduct an assessment of the housing market in the areas where it has bases. However, we found that many of these estimates are out of date. Some are as old as ten years. So, a lot has changed in the housing market in ten years. So by updating the housing assessment, having a complete list of critical housing areas, getting feedback from military personnel because they didn’t actually do that either, they only got feedback from those who lived on bases who didn’t actually ask military personnel . about his experience of searching for housing outside the base. Having more information to truly understand the problem and problem areas can help the Department of Defense take targeted actions to help service members.

Tom Temin Right. Much of this appears to fall on the shoulders of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy and Environment.

Alyssa Cheese Correct. And we found that they didn’t have the whole picture. Thus, housing is, as it were, controlled by the installation. The commander may have taken some action in his local community, but overall the DoD did not have a good overall picture of what was happening across the country and at various bases.

Tom Temin And if they wanted the full picture, what would they do with it? Because landlords are landlords.

Alyssa Cheese So that they can provide some guidance on how to better handle the situation. Some installations develop really good relationships with local communities. This is leading to rental partnership agreements and other things that can help service members. But having this kind of information about what’s going on in different places can really help the Department of Defense understand what it needs to do.

Tom Temin There seems to be a funny dynamic going on in the place you mentioned: it’s not as much of an issue as at Camp Lejeune, for example, where it’s very much a military community, whereas in a place like Key West it’s a tourist community . Plus locals who fish or run hotels, bars and restaurants, but it’s not a giant war situation. And where you have a community that is very much derived from the military, you may have people who are more willing to take a break for the military because they’ve all been there. A completely different situation than in Key West. Am I getting to something?

Alyssa Cheese Well, in our review we looked at only seven locations, and each of them has its own unique story. Thus, in Key West, providing vacation rentals only was a major concern for those who worked there. Different local communities have unique circumstances, and some are also affected by the local housing market. Thus, having a comprehensive view of all locations within the Department of Defense will help them target actions.

Tom Temin But there seems to be a bit of a theme here because you mentioned that Hawaii is a high-cost destination. I remember one time, many years ago, I went to Hawaii. The most expensive pineapple I’ve ever seen in my life was in Hawaii, where the damn things are grown. I can’t even attribute this to shipping costs. So it seems that where there is an economy other than the military, you will have more problems there. But you say you can’t get it from seven samples.

Alyssa Cheese Well, we noted in the report that the Department of Defense has a number of tools that can be used in different places. They may use cost of living adjustments and special benefits in certain markets. To some extent they do, but they may want to look at other options in some of these markets where affordable housing is very difficult to find.

Tom Temin Right, or at some point Congress will decide to increase the basic housing benefit, right?

Alyssa Cheese Right. But the Department of Defense does analysis and uses certain reference points to figure out what the housing allowance should be, and reviews it periodically. And they have other special benefits. So we noted that there are some tools that they could use. There are leasing and other things that they point out in their manuals as tools at their disposal. We found that they weren’t really looking at all the tools available and how they could help in some situations.

Tom Temin And by the way, what happens in Montana, which, as you said, is a difficult place, and they have to drive on difficult roads that may be covered in snow. And on some of these roads you may encounter bears. What’s happening in Montana? Are these Hollywood people buying ranches and taking over all the land?

Alyssa Cheese A housing market where supply is low and military personnel must travel long distances. And it’s very insidious, as you said. I think in the report we have a photograph of a dangerous road in Idaho that service members had to use because they couldn’t find housing near the base.