Editorial: An outdated standard

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Editorial: An outdated standard

Basic Allowance for Housing rates are vastly improved after five years of hefty increases earlier this decade. But the housing standards underpinning the rates are another story.

The Pentagon assigns what it considers “appropriate” housing — apartments, townhomes or single-family homes — to each paygrade, then surveys rental costs for those kinds of housing and sets BAH rates accordingly.

But aside from two tweaks, these standards have not changed since 1997. Under these rules, the only enlisted troops who rate single-family homes are married E-9s. And soldiers in the same paygrade receive the same BAH level regardless of whether they have children.

A Fleet Reserve Association survey of sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen found 70 percent believe BAH to be inadequate.

The Military Coalition, a powerful combine of more than 30 military and veterans-related associations, plans to champion this issue in its legislative agenda this year.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/community/opinion/army_editorial_bah_030308/