GMH offers Team Sheppard members new housing opportunity

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jacob Corbin
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  GMH Military Housing is offering a fairly unique opportunity to unaccompanied Team Sheppard members, the chance to share a home in base housing with a roommate of their choice.

This opportunity is quite a change to the old policy where only those active duty members with dependents could live in military family housing. Now, Team Sheppard members E-4 and above and officers have the chance to either find a roommate, rank permitting, or live in a two-bedroom home alone.

Roylene Quintero, community manager with GMH Military Housing, said there are numerous advantages to living on base including, no security deposit, the proximity to base amenities, free renters and liability insurance and the ability to have pets with no pet deposit. Utilities are also paid for by GMH using a percentage of basic allowance for housing.

Those wanting to take advantage of this program must be eligible to live off base and have their first sergeants approval.

Master Sgt. John Myers, first sergeant with the 80th Flying Training Wing, said it was simple and just required coordination with their first sergeant.

"I have no problem with it, as long as they're eligible to move out of the dormitories and it's a same-sex household," he said. "It's better to have the houses occupied and the Airmen on base.

Sgt. Myers added a few more benefits to GMH's list.

"It's beneficial to have another (military) person with them for two reasons," he said. "One, it's someone that understands what military life is like, and two, it keeps them from getting into trouble."

Unaccompanied servicemembers will split a flat-rate rent for the two-bedroom home, with the remainder of their base allowance for housing being reimbursed to them. Leases may be signed for as little as six weeks to the maximum lease of one year.

For more information and base housing prices, please call GMH at 264-4404.