Military Family Housing

The Defense Department (DOD) spends about $8 billion annually to house members of the armed forces and their families, either by paying a cash allowance to enable members to live in private-sector housing or by assigning families to government-owned or -leased quarters. DOD policy states that private housing in the neighborhoods around military installation will be relied on as the main source of housing and that government quarters may be programmed when the communities cannot meet the military's need for acceptable and affordable family housing. Also, government housing is provided for a small number of personnel who live on an installation for reasons of military necessity. This report discusses whether (1) DOD's policy of relying mainly on private housing to meet military family housing requirements is cost-effective, (2) the military services are complying with this policy, and (3) DOD's family housing policies result in equitable treatment for all military families.

GAO found that: (1) DOD reliance on private-sector housing to meet military family housing needs is cost-effective; (2) the government's cost is significantly less when military families receive housing allowances to live in private housing; (3) the cost difference for each military family living in private housing ranges from $3,200 to $5,000 annually; (4) families living in private housing pay a portion of their housing costs and have a greater selection of housing options to meet their needs; (5) DOD is not maximizing its use of private housing due to its reliance on inaccurate housing requirements, concerns with military quality of life standards, reluctance to designate more government housing for use by junior personnel, and inaccurate categorization of affordable private housing; (6) the housing benefits afforded to service members within the same pay grade differ depending on whether the members live in government or private housing; (7) members living in private family housing have less disposable income than members in the same pay grade living in government family housing; (8) DOD has taken initiatives to increase housing allowances and encourage private family housing to reduce service members' reliance on government housing; and (9) DOD needs to take additional steps to ensure the maximum use of private housing and the equitable distribution of benefits among military families.

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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