The Military Services Are Constructing Unneeded Family Housing

In its family housing program, the Department of Defense (DOD) tries to ensure married members of the armed services and their families adequate quarters. DOD policy is to rely on communities near military installations as the primary source for housing, and housing should be constructed on a military installation only as a last resort.

The DOD system for assessing available community housing is based on the military installations' annual survey. DOD uses questionnaire responses combined with information on community rental units currently vacant or planned to project housing deficits or surpluses. The services have justified housing construction at installations on the basis of sampling techniques that were erroneous. The services have generally understated the availability of community housing by such actions as limiting the areas considered below policy requirements, excluding houses for sale, and making improper allocations between military and civilian demand. Congress is not kept fully informed on housing shortages revealed by surveys. Also, families are assigned to onbase housing on the basis of service members' rank rather than family need. In 1975 and 1976, more than 35% of all military families lived in government-owned housing with more bedrooms than DOD authorized.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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