New policy authorizes BAH for single staff sergeants

[333MP]

New policy authorizes BAH for single staff sergeants
March 21, 2005


ARMY NEWS SERVICE , March 21, 2005 -- Single staff sergeants on stateside military installations will be allowed to live off post thanks to a new policy announced March 9.

The policy authorizes non-dependent basic allowance for housing pay to single staff sergeants on installations in the continental United States, Hawaii and Alaska. It does not apply to overseas facilities.

George Lloyd, a strategic planner for Army Unaccompanied Personnel Housing, said the goal of the new policy toward staff sergeant housing is twofold.

“It provides these Soldiers with more stability and gives staff sergeants the ability to plan their lives a little better,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd said staff sergeants who want to take advantage of the new policy should contact their commanders. [When the policy is fully implemented three years from now, staff sergeants will live off post automatically, officials said, unless they apply for senior enlisted rooms and compete along with master sergeants and sergeants major where that type of billeting is available.]

“The information has gone out to the field and is on our Web page (see below),” he said.

The change comes at a time when the Army is making numerous changes to the way it houses Soldiers, according to information from the Army’s Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management.

Earlier this year, the housing allowance increased by 8 percent, to cover a 4.5-percent increase in housing costs nationwide. An E-8 with dependents now receives about $60 more in each paycheck than before the change; an E-4 with dependents receives $47 more.

Staff sergeants will not all move off post immediately, officials said. They said the policy is designed to work by attrition.

Suzanne Harrison, chief of Army unaccompanied personnel housing, believes it will be about three years before all single staff sergeants move out of barracks, as noncommissioned officers move and are reassigned in the normal course of Army operations.

The Army will pay for moveswhen staff sergeants are told to move off post. Soldiers who elect to move on their own must do so at their own expense, officials said.

Staff sergeants can remain in their current billets until they are reassigned, officials said. When staff sergeants have a permanent change of station to another duty station in the 50 United States, they will be authorized to live off post.

Lloyd emphasized that Soldiers should work with their on-post Community Housing Relocation and Referral Services to ensure that they receive affordable and safe off-post properties when they are renting or buying.

For more information on the new policy, see “Hot Topics on the ACSIM Web site: www.hqda.army.mil/acsimweb.”

[Field_Sailor]

Wow, the Navy allows any E-5 and above to live off post (base), most E-4's as well.

[rchiruck]

Well, if you're e4 or higher, you can get off post housing if there's no room in the barracks. Normally, there isn't room in the barracks for the e3s and below, atleast that's how it is at good ol Ft campbell 4th bct.

[Rusty24]

I was an E-2 when I moved off. I see alot of E-3's moving off as well.