Yongsan making room for soldiers with large families

[unhappycamper]

Yongsan making room for soldiers with large families
By Jimmy Norris, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Monday, April 7, 2008

YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — Yongsan Garrison housing officials have been clearing space for the area’s largest families by turning pairs of two-bedroom duplexes into spacious five-bedroom houses.

Contract workers completed the conversion of the fourth duplex in late March, bringing the number of five-bedroom houses on Yongsan Garrison to six, said housing chief Carol Jones.

Jones said the conversions are needed as more large families find their way to South Korea. She said the five-bedroom houses have been filled with families needing room for as many as eight children.

“Every time we do one of these we’re losing a unit, but most of our senior enlisted and officers require more than two bedrooms,” Jones said. “A five-bedroom house off post is expensive, and (the rent) exceeds the housing allowance.”

Each renovation project cost about $19,000 — about $1,000 shy of the allotted budget — Jones said, and the units were transformed in less than 45 days each.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53885