Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy James Honea told Congress that the Navy needs authority to pay young sailors a housing allowance. Right now, many are forced to live on board ships, even when they return home from deployment.
“Somewhere on the average of 800 sailors per aircraft carrier, we can’t find a bed for them,” Honea said. “We don’t have barracks space. And we are not allowed by law to pay them housing allowance, for them to go find themselves an apartment in town. So they live on board the ship.”
The latest defense bill, passed in December, allows the Navy to give a housing allowance to junior sailors assigned to ships in maintenance. The Navy’s lack of barrack space came to head in Hampton Roads in 2022, when a number of ships and subs were being rebuilt at HII Newport News.
“We ended up with too many aircraft carriers and submarines in HII a few years ago and we were resource constrained to be able to house all those sailors at one time,” Honea said.
Though the Secretary of the Navy now has the authority to give a housing allowance to junior sailors assigned to ships in maintenance, the program has not been rolled out yet, according to U.S. Rep. Sarah Jacob, D-San Diego.
Forcing junior sailors to live on ships, even when they’re at home, is the Navy’s top quality of life issue, Honea said.
The House Armed Services Committee panel on Quality of Life heard from all the top enlisted leaders Wednesday. Pay and housing issues were the top concerns for each service.
U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Virginia Beach is a member of the panel. She said she wants the services to look more closely at privatizing barracks as a way to cut into the estimated $137 billion cost of deferred maintenance in military housing.
Each of the top enlisted leaders cited pay and housing as their top concerns. The committee is looking how pay, housing, childcare and spousal unemployment may be harming recruiting and retention across the services.
The Army, Navy and Air Force have each missed their recruiting goals in recent years. The Air Force says a strong economy has made recruiting more challenging.
“We can’t have service members distracted by whether or not they are able to live in safe and affordable housing. Whether they have access to health care or child care,” said Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass.
The Air Force has particular challenges to retain airmen who have skills that are in high demand in the private sector, which include pilots but also lower enlisted with cyber and other computer skills, she said.
The Marine Corps is looking for funding for a project called Barracks 2030, to tear down and replace housing for lower enlisted, said Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Marines Carlos Ruiz.
“Pockets where barracks are old and we need to knock them down and invest the money in the ones that can be saved,” he said.
