If base newcomers turn down Yokosuka
housing offers, it may prove costly
By Steve Liewer, Yokosuka
bureau chief
| In the works ... From staff reports
Beginning Aug. 1, newcomers to Yokosuka will be placed on a single
waiting list — called the initial waiting list — for military housing at the
base and its two satellite areas, Ikego Heights and Negishi.
If they turn down base housing while they are still staying at a hotel,
their temporary lodging allowance will immediately be discontinued. Previously, the base
kept separate lists for each housing area, and there was no penalty for those who turned
down an apartment.
Those who turn down their first housing offer can then move to the
preference waiting list, which allows them to choose which housing area and which style of
house (apartment or townhouse) they prefer. Also, all people currently on housing waiting
lists must state a similar preference for location and style by Aug. 1, or their
applications will be cancelled.
Servicemembers with three children will automatically be eligible for a
four-bedroom apartment. Previously, the children had to be of a certain age before the
family could move into a four-bedroom unit. |
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Yokosuka housing officials are taking aim at long
waiting lists for on-base housing by hitting the wallets of sailors and civilians.
Beginning Aug. 1, the housing office will end the temporary lodging allowance of base
newcomers who turn down housing at Yokosuka or one of its two satellite housing areas,
Ikego Heights and Negishi.
Currently, new arrivals can choose which of the three housing areas they prefer.
Waiting lists remain long for housing at the main base, but are short for Ikego and
Negishi, which are seven and 18 miles, respectively, from Yokosuka. Many newcomers are
offered the chance to move into one of the satellite areas within their first 90 days
— the time the Navy will pay for temporary lodging.
"They will be offered the first available housing, regardless of location or type
style [townhouse or apartment]," said Sue Kear, Yokosuka’s on-base housing
manager.
The policy change, announced Tuesday, could force sailors and their families to accept
an apartment at Ikego or Negishi. If they don’t, they would have to pay the $50-a-day
Navy Lodge bill themselves, and lose their per diem expenses.
Newcomers could still have the Navy pay for them to move into off-base housing instead,
but selecting a Japanese house and executing a lease usually takes several weeks.
Housing remains tight at Yokosuka in spite of a 10-year effort to build new apartment
towers at Yokosuka and Ikego. The number of on-base apartments has doubled to more than
2,000, and about 60 percent of sailors and U.S. civilians working at Yokosuka now live on
base compared with 30 percent 10 years ago.
As of June 1, Kear said, 971 families were waiting for base housing.
The policy is new to Yokosuka, though it’s not unusual for the military. Housing
officials say at most bases, new arrivals must accept the first available military
housing.
Still, the change irks some newcomers.
"It’s not right," said Lori Gala, who moved to Yokosuka May 19 with her
sailor husband. "If you don’t want to live at Ikego or Negishi or someplace far
away, you shouldn’t have to."
Petty Officer 1st Class Todd Carnes, 34, served from 1995-98 in Yokosuka aboard the
carrier USS Independence and returned two weeks ago for a second tour in Japan. He said
the housing office should not use the temporary lodging allowance — known as TLA
– as a weapon.
"I think it’s screwed up that they’re holding the TLA over your
head," Carnes said. "Why punish them, when they have to look for [an off-base]
house anyway?"
The problem is, most people stationed there want to live at Yokosuka, near their jobs
and the base’s popular shopping and restaurants. They fear the daily commute of 20
minutes to Ikego or 45 minutes to Negishi in traffic, and 45 minutes to Ikego or two hours
to Negishi during rush hour.
There’s nothing wrong with the apartments in the two outlying areas, said housing
manager Gail Washburn. Washburn said all the Ikego units are less than 6 years old, and
the Negishi units all are newly renovated.
Also, Ikego is near the popular swimming beaches of Sagami Bay, and many parents of
young children like the close family atmosphere of Ikego Elementary School. Negishi,
although distant from Yokosuka, is much closer to the shopping and nightlife of Yokohama
and Tokyo.
Still, many sailors turn down apartments at the satellite housing areas to wait for the
next open unit at Yokosuka. As a result, the waiting lists at Yokosuka run from one to two
years, while they are now as little as one month at Ikego and Negishi.
Newcomers to Yokosuka aren’t the only people affected by this week’s housing
policy changes. Servicemembers already on the various waiting lists for townhouses and
apartments at any of the three housing areas will have to choose one list by Aug. 1. Until
now, new arrivals were urged to sign up on as many lists (for example, Yokosuka townhouse,
Ikego high-rise) as possible to boost their chances of getting on-base housing.
Housing officials say the current system has become too complex.
"Right now, people go on multiple lists," Kear said. "It’s very
difficult to give people an accurate waiting time."
Quite frequently, she said, a servicemember’s name reached the top of, say, the
Ikego high-rise list. Often the sailor would turn down the available apartment to wait for
one at Yokosuka.
Washburn said the base still hopes to bring new housing on-line. Eight new townhouses
at Yokosuka are under construction. Four should be ready for occupants in September, and
the other four next spring.
Washburn said she is still awaiting word on the future of two housing towers planned
across the street from Yokosuka’s Navy Lodge.
The Japanese government stopped construction on the two apartment buildings last
September after discovering high levels of arsenic and mercury in the soil. The results of
additional tests are expected in the next few weeks, said base spokesman Mike Chase.
If construction is allowed to proceed, the two buildings would house 136 families. They
had been scheduled for completion in February 2002, but are at least a year behind
schedule.
Currently there are no plans to build any new housing at Yokosuka, Ikego or Negishi.
But, Kear said, the housing office currently is funding the total renovation of 10 of
Yokosuka’s older apartment towers, at $5.25 million per building.
Three have been completed, and the other seven are scheduled to be completed by 2006.
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