Navy reneges on housing lease for civilian worker in Italy

[unhappycamper]

Navy reneges on housing lease for civilian worker in Italy
By Lisa M. Novak, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, March 18, 2009

NAPLES, Italy — When the Navy decided late last year that civilians could move into some housing units on base, Daisy Parrish jumped at the chance.

Parrish, a civilian who works at the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station, moved to Naples in 2007 and lived in the neighborhood of Lago Patria for a year. But numerous problems with house repairs and worries about crime prompted her to move to Gricignano, just outside the support site. Then, the Navy opened two-bedroom units at the support site to civilians.

So, Parrish signed a lease drawn up by the housing office. The housing office also drew up a termination letter for her current landlord, prepared the paperwork to schedule her pack-out with the personal property office and notified the Human Resource Office to stop her living quarters allowance for economy housing. Her move-in date was Friday. But last week, Parrish received a call from the housing office telling her she couldn’t move.

"I feel like the ball in a really bad tennis match," she said. "How could they do this? I have a signed lease, they prepared all the paperwork for the move — and they have all those empty apartments!"

Parrish said she never received an official notification of why she was now denied base housing. Housing officials, she said, have offered only a vague explanation saying there were some changes being implemented to the base housing policy, but those changes have yet to be announced.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61409

[MADem]

1. That completely sucks, and the USN should honor the contract...but I see what they're up to.

Civilian housing comes out of a different "pot" than military housing funding does.

Someone on the mil-side is trying to economize, and here's how they're doing it:

Last month, the command announced a mandatory assignments policy to government housing for all incoming military personnel, reversing a long-standing policy of allowing residents to live in town, regardless of on-base occupancy rates.

That sucks, that's stupid, that won't work. People don't want to live in base housing because, well, it sucks. You're nutz to butz with assholes that you work with, who are nosey, and who interfere with your enjoyment of the country and the culture.

All you have to do to live out in town is ship your eighty pound dog over with you. Or better, your TWO dogs, or four cats, or what-have-you.