US Rep. Matt Gaetz pushing for military housing allowance hikes in Northwest Florida

WASHINGTON. — U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who represents Northwest Florida and its high concentration of military personnel in Congress, has gotten the help of the four county governments in his district in a push to boost the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) for junior enlisted military personnel.

County commissioners in Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties have in recent days passed resolutions supporting a BAH increase for those service members.

The resolutions follow an earlier successful effort by Gaetz's office to add a provision to the federal defense and spending policy bill for the current fiscal year directing the Department of Defense to "produce a report on housing and BAH rates in Northwest Florida due by Spring 2022," according to a Wednesday news release from the congressman's office.

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The resolutions do not offer any specific guidance as to what level of increase in the BAH is desired in any of the four counties. However, local BAH rates already have been the subject of some action in recent months. In September of last year, the DoD identified the Eglin Air Force Base "military housing area" (MHA) as one of 56 such areas nationwide where increased housing costs justified a temporary hike in BAH rates.

Those hikes, for which military personnel living in the Eglin MHA had to apply, began Oct. 1 but expired on Dec. 31. The Eglin MHA extends roughly from Mary Esther east to Miramar Beach and north to Crestview and DeFuniak Springs.

The BAH is calculated each year based on rental rates in specifically designated MHAs at and near military installations. The outlay is designed to cover 95% of the cost of rent and utilities. And even though BAH rates are calculated based on area rental rates, military personnel can, if they choose, use the money to cover mortgage payments on a purchased home.

The language in each of the resolutions passed in the four counties is somewhat different, as each notes the specific extent of military activities within their borders and the military funding coming to them in the federal military spending plan for the current fiscal year.

However, all of the resolutions have one paragraph in common. That paragraph notes that "flourishing economic opportunities, low unemployment, expanding job creation, rising wages and the challenges of the most extreme inflation in over thirty years has resulted in rising rates for annual rental agreements for housing ... ."

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The resolutions from Santa Rosa and Walton counties go as far as showing how the average rental cost for a single-family home in the respective counties falls below the BAH allocated to military personnel at the rank of sergeant — in the Navy, a petty officer second-class, and in the Air Force, a staff sergeant.

In Santa Rosa, according to its resolution, the average monthly rent for a single-family home is $2,200, while the BAH for sergeant-level military personnel is $1,701, a gap of $499.

The difference in Walton County is even wider, with the average rent of a single-family home at $2,786, and the BAH for sergeant-level military personnel with dependents at $1,968, a difference of $818.

According to information from other sources gathered Wednesday by the Daily News, the average single-family home rental cost in Escambia County was $1,905 monthly as of October of last year. A random check of ZIP codes in and around Pensacola, home to Naval Air Station Pensacola, showed the BAH for sergeant-level military personnel with dependents to be $1,764 monthly in those areas.

In Okaloosa, data checked by the Daily News found monthly single-family home rental prices in Fort Walton Beach ranging from $2,000 to $2,700, balanced against a BAH of $2,085 per month for sergeant-level personnel living in the city.

According to the news release from his office, Gaetz worked with the Pensacola Association of Realtors, the Emerald Coast Association of Realtors, Navarre Board of Realtors, Escambia County Commissioner Jeff Bergosh, Santa Rosa County Commissioner Bob Cole, Walton County Commissioner Danny Glidewell and Okaloosa County Commissioner Mel Ponder to draft the resolutions.

The documents are intended as a means of "signaling to the Department of Defense that the BAH rate increase is unanimously supported by the people of Northwest Florida," according to the release from Gaetz's office.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Military housing allowance falls short of Northwest Florida rents