Life, it seems, isn’t so sunny for many Navy housing residents in Italy. But for those living on-base in Spain and Iceland, things are just fine.
Commander, Navy Installations — which is in charge of all bases and their associated housing — recently released the results of its annual satisfaction survey, which was given to all residents in late 2004.
Overall, Navy housing in Europe ranked slightly above the worldwide Navy average, although Naval Support Activity Naples and Naval Air Station Sigonella — two of the Navy’s largest bases in Europe — ranked below average.
Naval Station Rota, Spain, residents rated their units highest, overtaking Naval Air Station Keflavik, Iceland, which was the top-ranked housing in 2003. Both of these units rated in the top half of the “average” score range.
Navy Region Europe housing management specialist Sandra Peterson said that officials are generally happy with the results, but “there’s always room for improvement.”
That improvement, she said, is under way, although it won’t happen overnight.
“In effect we’re modernizing and getting more lease-built complexes,” she said.
Navy Europe’s lowest-ranking units, Sigonella’s Gli Ulivi, is on the list for the last time as its final residents move out this year. One of Sigonella’s newer housing areas, Mineo, also ranked low. Factors such as distance from the main base — Mineo is 27 miles from the NAS I facility — weighed heavily on those survey results, Peterson said.
The mail-in survey covered nine different areas, including the readiness of housing personnel to solve problems, the property appearance and condition, quality of management and even the quality of any maintenance done on the facilities.
The surveys were distributed to each on- and off-base leased housing unit late last year.
Peterson said new surveys should start showing up in late October or early November and officials want as much participation as possible.
“If [residents] have issues ... such as [maintenance] response time, we can address them,” she said. “It’s very important for us to know what issues warrant response. If we don’t know it’s an issue, we can’t fix it.”
