Privatization

We're number 27 this week!

What does that mean, you ask?

Well.......it means that we're getting close to being assigned our home on a military installation for the next three years.

A month ago, when we left my husband's last duty station in Virginia, we were number 32 on the housing waitlist.  So, we've made a significant jump in five weeks and am told that this is a good thing.

For me, a "good thing" is when we get the phone call that a house is available for us to move into quickly.  These little jumps up the waitlist just aren't significant enough when we're living in a hotel with a toddler and paying for each day out of our savings account.  

You're probably thinking, "doesn't the military cover that?" and "why from your saving account?".

The answers are .... "the military will only cover less than half the cost of a hotel during transition through my husband's monthly housing allowance, which is why we're having to tap into our saving account".

The hotel on the military installation is now privatized (outsourced / run by a private company), so the rates for lodging on base/post are comparable to hotels outside the gates.  The rates offered to Soldiers are no longer congruent with the amount given for their housing allowance.

Oh, I forgot that the military will reimburse us for 10 days of hotel living, but whoop-tee-do.

What's 10 days when you start out at number 32 on the waitlist and are told that it may take 1-4 months.

Veteran military folks ask, "why didn't you put yourself on the waitlist when you received orders to your new duty station a year ago and get the paperwork started before you left Virginia?"

The answer to that is "the housing is privatized (outsourced) and this particular privatized company won't allow a Soldier to get on the waitlist until they sign out of their new unit".

Here's my beef in a nutshell (I'll be brief)...

It's a new day in the U.S. military.  

The government is broke.  

The doors have been opened WIDE for private companies to come in and pillage the Soldier's paycheck.

End of rant.  Thanks for listening.