Navy Updates Housing Allowance Policy for Married Sailors
Navy members authorized to collect BAH, the Basic Allowance for Housing, are allowed this benefit for a single location, even if the service member has a family who must live at another duty location while the Sailor makes a PCS move to a new job.
Sailors can only collect BAH once a month for a single residence; “double dipping” is not allowed.
Scenarios like the one above are more common in military life than outsiders realize, and changes to Navy BAH policy may ease the burden many face in those circumstances.
Changes to Navy housing allowance policy now add flexibility for sailors who may want to forgo BAH at their new duty station and choose to collect BAH based on the rate where the rest of the family lives.
Navy Changes to BAH Policy
The Navy announced those changes to its housing benefits in September 2024, and the rules mostly benefit sailors who must PCS without their families to a new duty location. The new policy, effective on and after 1 October 2024, was announced in a Navy policy memo, NAVADMIN 192/24, which states:
“This NAVADMIN authorizes Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) based on dependents location for members who choose to leave their dependents at the previous duty station or previously authorized dependent location in the Continental United States (CONUS), Alaska, and Hawaii.”
Why is this an important development for Navy families?
Because some sailors are assigned to new duty stations that may include sea duty on board a ship, remote locations within the United States, or unaccompanied overseas tours.
Paying Out-Of-Pocket
In those scenarios, under the new rules, a sailor may pay out-of-pocket for housing or stay in government quarters while the family continues to qualify for the Basic Allowance for Housing at their location.
A U.S. Naval Institute News report includes this quote from Lieutenant Meagan Morrison, a spokesperson from the Office of the Chief of Naval Personnel. Morrison notes that the Navy policy change offers families more financial options.
“If family stability, leaving family at (an) old [duty station] for school or jobs, is more important than moving together, this allows them some flexibility in that,” Morrison said in an email.
Basic Allowance for Housing Choices
As mentioned above, military members eligible for BAH can only collect it for one location. Sailors must choose whether to pay housing expenses out-of-pocket for the new assignment or the family’s location. One wrinkle in that decision-making process?
A sailor who accepts BAH for the family’s location is not guaranteed a slot in military housing at the new duty station.
If a sailor is not deploying on board a ship, and is not living in unaccompanied housing on-base at the new assignment, it’s entirely possible they may wind up paying two rents, one offset by BAH and one not offset.
Sailors who opt into the flexible BAH option should know they may still pay out of pocket and adjust their finances accordingly.
The Navy’s BAH policy changes as the Department of Defense seeks more ways to improve military quality of life, including issues affecting military family housing and related aspects of serving in uniform.
Some sources note that this upgraded Navy policy seems tailored to those who must serve on board a ship and have the opportunity to live ashore and those further along in their military careers who want to provide housing and location stability for their families.
About the author
Editor-in-Chief Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter/editor for Air Force Television News and the Pentagon Channel. His freelance work includes contract work for Motorola, VALoans.com, and Credit Karma. He is co-founder of Dim Art House in Springfield, Illinois, and spends his non-writing time as an abstract painter, independent publisher, and occasional filmmaker.
