Pensacola on base housing

[JSunflower1217]

My husband will be in Pensacola for A&C school beginning May 3rd. We are looking into possibly living in the on base housing there. Does anyone have experience with this? We have a child and one on the way so I'm assuming we would live in "Corry Village" Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated! :)

[Meridith_21]

I was going to ask this question too, just for a later date. I was just going to stay at home until he got done with his schooling but with what I have seen, the A schools are backed up because of the shutdown, so it's adding a few months onto their scheduled time. With that, I am thinking I would like to accompany him if possible. Can you only get base housing if you are on PCS orders? Or does A and C school count?

[JSunflower1217]

I spoke wight he on base housing office today. the gentleman said that he will definitely qualify- you have to be there at least 6 months and have BAH. Except the housing company they go through requires you sign a 7 month lease I think. He also said there isn't much of a waiting list. Good luck to you guys! I posted this on the Pensacola A school board but no one answered. I think the most important thing is to be proactive. Oh and you can't apply until your husband is 30 days out from moving there. 

[meagan5220]

I have heard that they do not give base housing to sailors while in School in PCola. You might find the group for A school in Pcola and Corry Station and ask there to be sure. Also, some schools in Pcola do not allow live ashore chits, which is where they request to live off base, so you might ask there as well about which rates allow that and which don't.

[Juliaalyse]

Wait. Okay so.... My husband just left for basic and he will be going to A school in Pensacola at the end of July. We have one child and one on the way, but we were told by multiple people that I probably can't live with him and he has to live in the barracks. I'm so confused right now because we we really want to be close while he is in A school. So, we CAN live on base with them?

[Anti M]

There are two correct answers, which is why you hear two different things.  It depends on the length of the school, I think 20 weeks is the cut off, not including hold times, indoc, or C schools.   Also, there are two training commands in P-cola, one may have different policies than the other.  

[Juliaalyse]

So, it has to be 20 weeks or more or less than 20 weeks? He will be there for 24 weeks. I think I may just need to call closer to the moving time and ask.

[Anti M]

24 weeks is long enough to be "accompanied".  I would call the housing office sooner than later,  pin down the exact date you can get on the wait list.  Whatever you can do, try to get it done!  I know not everything is possible, but give it a shot.

[JSunflower1217]

I am going through this right now and the answer is no, 24 weeks is not long enough to live on base. Im pretty sure you have to sign a 7 month lease in order to live on base through the housing company they use. BUT the navy will most likely pay for your family to move if his A school will be 20 weeks or greater, he has to have the ACC code of 342 on his orders in order for them to pay for the move. You can find an apartment off of base though. Which I would recommend doing now. I am moving into one June 21st and when I called last week, barely any had 3 bedrooms available. The ones we are moving into basically automatically approve military and are right out the back gate of NAS. Also, they do the A and C school orders sepeartely so for my husband the navy will not pay to move us until my husband starts C school but we have opted for me to move sooner. Also, you can not get on the waiting list for on base housing until you have your husbands order in hand so basically what we had to do was scan everything and then email, before we decided to live off base. But you can't do that until he graduates bootcamp.

And I don't know if your husband will have to do this because his orders say he will be there for 24 weeks but in order to live off base they have to put in a "chit" which is a request to live off base with their spouse and its not always approved. We have a child and are expecting one as well and I'm having slight complications so he's been informed by his chain of command that they'll do anything to help him get it taken care of. 

The number for the housing office is 850-452-5168. You can get the necessary information you need as soon as you call. What I did was fill out the app, print 2, and have my husband sign them as soon as he graduated bootcamp lol 

Good luck!

[Juliaalyse]

Thank you so much for all this info. What area are you living in? I want to come down to Pensacola and take a few tours before I decide. I'm not really interested in a 3 bedroom, a 2 bedroom is just fine, so I hope many have those available.

It's stressful because I will be 35 weeks pregnant when he graduates and trying to get all of this done in 5 weeks is scary. Good idea, I'll go ahead and fill out the app. They approve military automatically even when the lease will only last 24 weeks? 

I would hope he could live with us, but as long as we're at least in the same city, I'll be happy. We live in Kingsbay right now and that's about 5 1/2 hours away. We talked about just driving back and forth on weekends, but with a newborn and a 2 year old, that's not realistic or appealing. 

What is the "necessary" information I am looking for? I'm sorry. I am SO new to this.

[Anti M]

Driving back and forth on weekends probably would put him outside the liberty limits.  Great Lakes is 300 miles, I don't know the P-cola limit specifically, but it is likely a similar amount.  All commands have liberty limits, how hard they enforce them varies.

[Juliaalyse]

It is also 300 for Pensacola. Thank you for pointing this out to me. It is making my decision a little easier. We live 390 miles from there, so I would have to do the driving back and forth with a newborn and two year old. In other words: No thanks. haha. I'm currently looking into apartments. Just wondering, when do we receive first pay and housing allowance? Will it be during basis or after?

[Anti M]

BAH kicks in after a few pay cycles, so closer to the end of boot camp.  You will get a lump sum of back pay from day one, after that, you get half in each check. every month

When the first paycheck arrives depends on how many processing days he had.  It will be small as they deduct for necessities and such they are required to buy at the NEX (not uniforms as is commonly thought).  Payday is the 1st and the 15th, or the work day before, if it is a weekend.