Some landlords of privatized military housing are resuming the utilities billing process for military families.
The resumption varies across the service branches, and by installation, and starts with mock billing before actual billing begins.
The Air Force appears to be further along in restarting its billing program, based on responses from the other services to Military Times’ questions. The Navy and Marine Corps expect to resume their billing at some locations at some point later this year, with the Marine Corps beginning with housing in Hawaii.
At least two privatized housing communities — Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, and Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas— have informed residents about mock billing from February through April. Actual billing begins in May.
Like the old utilities program, which went by the same name name, the new Resident Energy Conservation Program establishes a baseline amount of utility usage for a housing unit, and rewards residents with rebates if they use less energy than the baseline. Residents who use more than the baseline range are charged for excess consumption.
The previous utilities program was discontinued in 2021 following complaints by residents about the fairness of the program, particularly the accuracy of the meters measuring gas and electricity usage and the billing.
For the new utilities program, Defense Department guidance requires installations to conduct a three-month mock billing period before the actual billing begins, but Marine Corps families will have a six-month period.
Mock billing gives residents clear information about their usage and gives them time to adjust before actual billing starts, said Carolyn Baker, spokeswoman for Hunt Military Communities, which operates the privatized housing at Maxwell and Little Rock. Hunt is the largest military housing owner, with about 190,000 residents in nearly 60,000 homes on U.S. installations of all service branches.
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Hunt is implementing the utilities billing program across its housing communities, Baker said, but all policy decisions, including whether and when to restart at each installation, are made by DOD and the military services.
Five out of the 10 Air Force privatized housing partners have taken steps to implement the program, said Air Force spokeswoman Laurel Falls.
The plans for implementing the billing vary by installation, Falls said, but landlords who elect to start the program must follow Air Force and DOD guidance.
DOD sets the methodology for establishing the baseline usage and requirements for meter accuracy, and similar homes are grouped together for a fair comparison. DOD guidelines also set a monthly payment and rebate threshold, typically $50 above or below the baseline average, Baker said, “so that only significant outliers would see a charge or rebate in a given month.”
The calculations for determining the Basic Allowance for Housing each year include the median cost of rent for various types of homes in a given area, plus the average cost of utilities. Service members living in privatized housing pay their BAH directly to their landlord.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book “A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families.” She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
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