Honolulu BAH
Many people dream of living in Hawaii, but far fewer people want to pay the high prices. For military members who are serving a tour of duty in Honolulu, these high housing prices can be just as much of a concern. For these individuals in uniform, it’s all the more important to be aware of the financial assistance that’s available to military members to help them pay for housing.
Basic Allowance for Housing, often shortened to BAH, is a way for those who have served in the military to be provided with money to afford rent or house payments. These allowances make it possible for these military members to provide housing for themselves and their depends, who usually includes their spouse and children. This is a military privilege that’s run by the Defense Travel Management Office (DTMO). Basic Allowance for Housing is sometimes also referred to as Basic Housing Allowance, or BHA.
There are a variety of factors that come into play when determining your individual BAH rate. These rates are determined both by location as well as a person’s rank or pay grade. Once this allowance is approved, the recipient is then free to use it to pay their rent or buy a house. BAH allowances are paid on a monthly basis.
The Defense Travel Management Office releases updated charts that detail the specific Basic Allowance for Housing with each military pay grade. Those who have dependents receive higher payments than those who are without. The amount that these two allowances differ varied depending on your military rank.
Housing Allowances by Rank
Since Basic Allowance for Housing is determined in part by the location where the military member is serving, it’s possible to find your specific Honolulu BAH. It’s important to verify that you’re looking at the correct details for your particularly military rank and other conditions, such as whether or not you have dependents.
At the low end of the spectrum, military personnel in the E-1 rank in 2021 receive $2,823 for the Basic Allowance for Housing if they have dependents. E-1 military members without dependents receive $2,118.
For the highest-ranked military officers, O-7 members are given $4,032 for their housing if they are with dependents. For O-7 members with no dependents, their total allowance is $3,561.
Down the middle of the road, the BAH rates Honolulu for army members at the W-1 ranking is currently $3,024 for people with dependents. At that same ranking with no dependents, the rate is $2,769.
Understanding how these allowances work is crucial for any military member because it’s money that they are entitled to in order to make rent and house payments possible. Basic Allowance for Housing can be used to make mortgage payments more manageable and open up a wide range of living situations that would have been impossible without the assistance.
Providing these types of financial assistance programs to people in the military is a key part of ensuring that troops are taken care of. When stationed in an area like Honolulu, the price of housing is enough to make the experience entirely unmanageable and puts unnecessary stressors on troops trying to do their jobs.
With the Defense Travel Management Office’s program of financial help, a military career can become more appealing to those considering entering the armed forces. It’s difficult to dream of serving in the army who can’t even afford to find somewhere to live in the place that they’re stationed. In this way, the DTMO’s BAH program serves to not only improve the lives of existing military officers but usher in a new generation to their ranks.
