PORT HUENEME : Work to Begin on Military Housing

In an effort to ease a housing crunch at the Port Hueneme navy base, construction is scheduled to begin this month on a project that will increase by 60% the number of military family housing units at the base.

The $22-million project, expected to be complete by early 1994, will consist of two multifamily housing complexes of two-bedroom apartments, one building with 208 units, the other with 92 units, that will have similar designs but will be located at different base sites.

It is the first family housing to be built at Port Hueneme Naval Construction Battalion Center in 19 years and the first apartment complexes for military families, Navy officials said.

Although Port Hueneme already houses its unmarried personnel in apartment complexes, all of the military families on base live in houses.

“This is a new endeavor,” Public Affairs Officer Linda Wadley said. “I think it will help quite a bit” to ease the base housing crunch.

Military families stationed at Port Hueneme now wait 14 to 16 months on average to get into one of the 500 on-base houses, where they pay no rent, Wadley said.

Families and unmarried personnel not able to live on base get housing allowances from the Navy to help offset their housing costs.

But many people stationed at both Port Hueneme and Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station have complained that the allowances don’t make up for the high cost of housing in Ventura County compared with other parts of the country.

In addition to the family housing complexes, construction will begin on new barracks for enlisted personnel.