Base housing is one of many experiences unique to military life. It’s one of those things people have strong opinions about–either they’ve had nothing but great experiences and absolutely love it, or they’ve come to hate it with a burning passion. I’ve lived in 3 different military housing communities thus far and they’ve all had their ups and downs. I have reached a point where I am tired of it. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful we even have the option to live on base and enjoy the perks that come with it., like my husband being close to work and the occasional good neighbors that become your best friends. This is just based on my experience, and is meant to be humorous while shedding some light on the not so glamorous side of military life. I’ve also lived off base, and that was a much more positive, peaceful experience. A longer commute, yes, but totally worth it. Here are the top 5 things I hate most about base housing, in no particular order.
1). Poor house quality to BAH ratio. When you compare the homes you can rent off base with the housing on base, there is a huge difference; at least for most bases. Off base rentals are always nicer. Living on base means that housing takes every cent of your housing allowance. You don’t see a dime of it, and added bonus: you get a crappy house! Whereas off base, you can get a nicer house for the same price or even cheaper. I’ve lived in base housing that is made entirely of cinder block walls and concrete floors–ugly as sin! I’m talking built in the 30’s, painted easter egg pastel colors on the outside, and never renovated. Since all the walls were cinder block, you were hard pressed to hang up pictures or décor of any kind. The floors in the entire house looked just like a garage floor. The inside had lead paint, and probably asbestos. I have also lived in houses that have paper thin walls, no storage space, and serious design flaws. For example, no ceiling fans in a tropical climate, where it is at least 80 degrees year round. A half bath with a fan, and a full bath without one, so you are sweating when you walk out of the shower.
2). Drama, drama, drama. It is like “The Real Housewives of Pearl Harbor” up in here. Every base is like this. Domestic violence isn’t just limited to the angry drunks in the trailer park; it is just as common in base housing. Remember the paper thin walls I mentioned? You hear everything, whether you want to or not. I once heard a couple fighting next door, and the wife was beating the husband, and he was begging for mercy. I thought about calling Security Forces, but the guy that was getting beat up by his wife, WAS Security Forces! (Thankfully it stopped before I had to call). Some couples even took the very loud arguments outside, parading their dysfunction for all the neighborhood to see. There are swingers galore, and wives cheating on deployed husbands. Then you have the parking Nazis, the housewives with nothing better to do than leave really nasty notes on every car parked in the “wrong” spot. You have the nosy ones who drop by to “kindly inform you” that whatever you are doing is against housing rules, before they even know the full story. Don’t even get me started on the housing Facebook pages…talk about free entertainment! One of my personal faves on the housing yard sale site, “Big girl panties for sale, because y’all need ’em!” I could go on, but you catch my drift.
3). It’s all privatized now. When my husband’s military career began and we moved into our first house, on base, it was run by the base. They had inspectors that would nit-pick at every little thing, including how many inches tall your grass was. Annoying as that was, we got free water, sewage, trash, and electricity. Now, they have contracted all of the housing out to private companies. It’s still base housing, as in the military owns the land, but the privatized housing company owns the buildings on that land. It is vastly different now! They charge for electricity if you go over a certain usage; which would be fine if they went about it fairly. The RECP electricity program is a total scam, where you are compared to other houses; the size of your family is NOT factored into the equation. You can be a family of 4, and be compared to a couple that is gone at work all day. Obviously, the family of 4 will be using much more electricity since they do twice the amount of laundry, dishes, etc. Some people pay hundreds of dollars for electricity, even after living like cavemen. You can turn the A/C off and sweat all day long to bring your bill down, but it doesn’t always work. Meanwhile, your neighbor is blasting AC all day and night and getting REFUNDS. This whole being compared to your neighbors thing was a horrible idea and it is not working. It is very shady, and it was never like this when the base itself ran things. The quality of life has taken a nose-dive since they’ve thrown the privatized housing middle man in the mix. These properties are very poorly managed, and you are lucky to get a call back from anybody in the housing office or maintenance. Back in the day when the base ran everything, they were on top of it. They were super anal about everything, but at least they did their jobs, which is more than I can say for most privatized housing companies. The way our military members are treated by them is deplorable and they deserve so much better than that after all they do for this country.
4.) Theft and vandalism. I have never had problems like this off base. And the sad thing is, it’s always the military kids who live here doing it. These kids run wild–smoking, stealing and vandalizing till the wee hours of the night. They play ding-dong ditch, start gangs, key cars, steal from cars, use the playgrounds for sexual activities, trash the neighborhood, and be as loud and obnoxious as possible as soon as the baby goes to sleep. We have had the unfortunate experience of living right next door to a park for the past 2 years. There are always unsupervised, hooligan kids that very loudly take it over when school is out. We’ve had our vehicle rolled down the street and almost into another house in broad daylight. If we are in our garage, some stray kid we’ve never met will wonder in, asking what we’re doing. (Are parents no longer teaching their kids not to talk to strangers?) We’ve had dirt clods thrown at our vehicle. NONE of these kids ever have parents out there watching them. I don’t understand it. Most of these kids have ZERO respect for other people or their property. You’d think living on base is safer, that the gates keep all the crazies and burglars out, but that is not the case. Sadly, the crazies and burglars are already inside the gate and have ID’s.
5). Close Quarters. Neighbors everywhere. Neighbors in your front yard, neighbors in your back yard, here a neighbor, there a neighbor. If you grew up in the boondocks like I did, this is really hard to deal with. Base housing is all about cramming houses together so they can fit as many units into one area as possible. This results in yards backing right up to each other, the parking situation is a joke, you always share at least one wall with a neighbor and you see and hear more than you want to. People are constantly moving in and out and you never know what your going to get when that moving truck pulls up next door. You can see everything, including the creepy guy outside in his underwear yelling weird things at his dog, and the neighbors that get undressed with the blinds wide open…yuck! You can see the neighborhood show-off doing pull-ups and push-ups in the park, directly outside your window. Not only do you see things that can’t be unseen, but a lot of neighbors can be very inconsiderate; blasting music, leaving their dogs to bark for hours, cranking up the weed eater at 9 pm on a weeknight, allowing their HUGE dog to take a dump in your yard, etc., etc. People seem to have forgotten that this is a military community, where everyone works crazy shifts and long hours. Chances are pretty good that someone is exhausted and trying to sleep no matter what time it is. You’d think that since we’re all in the same boat here, people would understand that. But they don’t. A little consideration goes a long way. If you happen to have a good neighbor nearby, that is priceless! It’s makes all the difference when you’re surrounded by good people instead of inconsiderate weirdos.
Life in base housing is an adventure, for sure. Most military families have some interesting stories to tell! I just have to find the humor in it all and laugh about it, otherwise I would go crazy. The housing situation is different for each duty station. It’s nice having the option to live in military housing if your particular area doesn’t have much to offer. Personally, I would rather live off base after dealing with all of this. I much prefer the fair electricity billing afforded to civilians over the scam they’re running here. I would rather drive a bit further to base and have a house with more peace, quiet and privacy; where I’m not sharing walls with noisy neighbors. When your life revolves around the military, being away from base can be a welcome respite. You can feel more like a normal family, if only for a moment. To be honest, this life is far from normal; but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Mama Bear's Den 