TAMPA, Fla. — Our military stationed at MacDill Air Force Base don’t necessarily work and live there. For many, it’s a choice not to live there, but some families are forced to wait until housing that fits their needs on the installation becomes available.
The Lovdahl family says home is where the Air Force sends them.
“17 years and 9 moves,” Typhany Lovdahl said.
She and her husband have four children from kindergarten to high school. The couple has rented, lived in military quarters and bought homes over the years.
“The major [deciding] factor is, do they have a house big enough for us?” she said.
The family moved from Texas to Tampa.
“They pretty much told us, like, ‘Yeah, you'll probably leave here before you get offered a house,’” she said.
There are 572 homes on MacDill Air Force Base that are owned and operated by a private housing company.
Housing assignments depend on factors like the size of the house a family needs based on dependents and a servicemember’s rank.
When there are more families than available homes, a family is placed on a waitlist which can run anywhere from 30 days to 24 months.
"So we bought and we bought far out because there was like nothing. We can't afford a million-dollar house in Tampa," Lovdahl said.
When families either choose to or have to live off base as they wait for housing, the government provides BAH – Basic Allowance for Housing. The amount depends on factors including rank, number of dependents and the zip code.
"Housing is $2,795, I think," Jessi Britt said.
Britt’s husband serves in the United States Army. She says they do prefer to live off base for a number of factors. When they moved to Tampa, they rented in Riverview. She says her husband traded a longer commute for a larger home with the amenities they wanted. Within a year they were priced out.
"It was $800 they were raising the rent each month," she said. "We came and put our name on the housing waitlist here on base."
Blue Star Families is a national non-profit that provides community support and resources for military families. Suzy Malloy runs the Tampa chapter of Blue Star Families.
“People are shocked when they get here," she said.
Malloy, a military spouse herself, says in her experience, Tampa is one of the most expensive military towns in the country. Unlike civilian jobs, Malloy says the military base rate pay doesn’t change based on the zip code.
“That's where BAH comes into effect. The problem is BAH is always behind the power curve and especially with the huge increases that happened in housing in 2022 and 2023, the BAH is just not up to tempo," Malloy added.
Blue Star Families is calling on the Department of Defense to increase the housing allowance back to a 100% cost of living or rate of rental match. Right now, it's 95%.
"That 5% is an unfair disadvantage to our youngest enlisted families in high-cost areas of living like the Tampa Bay Region," she said.
According to the Department of Defense, about two-thirds of military members and their families do not live on military bases. The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2025 includes a 100% match. The Pentagon says that will cost the DoD a billion dollars a year.
10 Tampa Bay anchor Courtney Robinson sat down with Colonel Adam Bingham. Bingham commands the 6th Air Refueling Wing and MacDill Air Force Base.
He says when he took command, housing was one of the first things he was asked about and is among the issues he hears about most often as the commander.
Bingham took action.
"On average regardless of rank, in the two years that I've been here we've been able to get that base allowance for housing increased by on average 30% per member and we're hoping that continues because it probably needs to," he said.
Families who live in base housing do not receive the allowance. The costs of housing and utilities are taken care of. Additionally, there’s no commute. There’s a grocery store and school. Families say they also feel safer to allow children to play without supervision.
Bingham also made sure there was a new Housing Requirements Market Analysis or HRMA. The last time that had happened for MacDill Air Force Base was in 2005. The HRMA evaluates housing needs. The results are part of what’s used to determine what, if any, changes need to happen. The final report should be finished this summer.
Courtney asked Bingham about whether there are conversations to build more housing on MacDill.
“So there certainly have been conversations, because I personally had those conversations early on,” he said.
“When I look at 572 houses at basically 100% occupancy rate, with 500 families on the waitlist. I mean, just basic economics would tell you that if you build more houses, they will surely be filled and so I took those conversations and said, hey, you know, look, what's the, what's the opportunity there, as a Department of Defense that we could build more houses at MacDill there? You know, everything is a trade-off, and it's about priorities, and it's about where, what can we do? And right now, that's just not something that the Department of Defense is willing to move out on.”
For military families, it does come down to their own choices and priorities.
The Lovdahl family says the costs of home ownership in a new community in Apollo Beach combined with commuting became too much. They sold their home and were able to get a house on MacDill after just about a week on the waitlist.
The Britts also found housing on MacDill, though the wait was much longer for them. Jessi says when they get to choose where to live, Tampa still tops the list.
"I do love Tampa, though. I will say this is definitely on the retirement checklist," she said.