Marine Housing?

Question

I lived in NYC my whole life, but my husband said we ould move with Marriage Housing or something like that. He;s in the Marines by the way do I get to choose to stay here or do the Marines pick where we have to live?

Answer 1

I'm a Marine Wife. Stationed in Camp Lejeune, NC. I also live in base housing. It's not bad, small, but better than some. You do have an option of staying back, but I'd rather be with my husband. I didn't move down here right away, because he was shipped off to Iraq three months after marrying. And we got BAH (housing), BAS(food), and FSA II(family sep.). When you move into base housing you forefit BAH and FSA. Now if he already has a permanent duty station, they will not help financially to move. If he hasn't gotten stationed anywhere yet, then you will get a dislocation allowance. You can also choose to live off base. Most of the time there is a waiting list for base housing, depending on need. Honestly I've never used any of the resources the military offers down here, and the town sucks. We miss our home town, and getting ready for another deployment in three months. Good Luck. If you have questions, feel free to email me :)

Answer 2

Brian C, housing is not free of charge. You are given BAH and if you choose to live off base, that amount is used toward your rent. Yes on base we don't pay utilities but it is not free of charge. This amount is to offset your cost of living.

Depending on where you live, you can get rather decent housing with that amount UNLESS you are living in Southern California where if you aren't used to apartment living, you will be begging for base housing. We went from a 4 bedroom house in Okinawa to a 3 bedroom apartment in California. The BAH barely covered rent and that was it. The utilities were extra.

But you can choose where you want t live.

Answer 3

You can stay where you want. It is him that has to be stationed on or near his base. The have a certain mileage limit on how far you can live from your permanent duty station. The Marine Corps will give you a house on base free of charge. You could also rent or buy a house off base and they will give you housing allowance. He needs to check with his unit to see how far off base you are allowed to live.

Answer 4

why on earth would you voluntarily choose to live away from your spouse? the first year of marriage is hard enough without tossing in deployments, training and living apart by choice.

He is talking about Base Housing. there are two types.. PPV housing, ad the old military run housing. Housing is given to servicemembers based on criteria such as Paygrade and bedroom entitlement. a newlywed couple with no children tends to qualify for a 2 BR unit, which can either be apartment style or townhouse/duplex style, depending on base.

PPV housing is run by civilians. you are given BAH, and that entire amount is immediately taken back out for rent and most utilities. Military run housing, you forfeit BAH but pay no rent and most often no utilities. cable, phone and internet is of course always your responsibility. NOT every base will have availability. If that is the case, he gets BAH (based on his paygrade and duty station zip code) and he can find a place to live out in town. you can choose to live in an area that BAH covers everything, or you can pay of pocket.

IF you choose to stay put, you will be missing out on a LOT of resources as well as money. For one, he will NOT qualify for Family Separation allowance. You will not have easy access to base facilities such as Medical Commissary, Exchange and the support centers. BASH is base don his duty station, NOT where you are living except in circumstances where his Orders do not allow family members to accompany him. so if he is stationed in NC he will only get BAH for that area and not NY. the BAH there is MUCH less than it would be for NYC and it will most likely NOT be enough to pay for the average rent. plus all the traveling back and forth to visit is entirely your responsibility.

the Marines dictate where you live by sending him to a duty station. once you are at said duty station, you do have some control. you can choose to live in base housing if available or you can choose to live in town.

don't doom a marriage to failure just because you don't want to move out of Mom and dad's house. your place is rightfully with your SPOUSE, no matter where he is stationed.