SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Replace all public housing with Housing Choice Vouchers. It provides more flexibility to families, and eliminates the cost of maintaining the public housing facilities.

Shut off all power to the inmate housing units during "tent days". This is a time period when the temperature is reasonable to sleep outside (e.g. between 60 and 80 degrees Farenheit). This would save immensely (e.g. electrical, heating and cooling costs).

Military engineers can build amazing things. Rather than building high rise housing, Have See Bees and their counterparts build or rebuild communities in the continental US. It is great practice for abroad.

Currently OHA is a use or lose entitlement. This being said, is an entitled member has an allowance for 1200 Euro (monthly) and only uses 900 Euro, the government keeps the savings with no incentive/reward to member. This system causes members to search out a residence that takes the most advantage of their benefit. This in-turn causes an inflated mark-up of houses on the economy further driving up the cost of OHA. If... more »

Require military to live on base. Do not offer the option to live off base unless there are extenuating circumstances. There are numerous programs and infrastructure in place on bases that are not used because noone lives on the base to use them. Instead of paying for off-base housing, use what is already sitting unused and available to house military members.

U.S. military personnel currently function under the traditional Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA) policy while stationed abroad. This policy is a “Use-or-Lose” policy which does not incentivize those who do not refrain from spending their OHA entitlements to the maximum allotted level. This provides a diminishing “Return On Investment” (ROI) but is the only option to OCONUS personnel. This, in turn, causes unnecessary... more »

Electronic Version of the Monthly Accounting Report to include a cumulative risk analysis of of the project. The Owner/Agent enters in the Schedule A, B, and C information; however it is assembled differently so as to capture the information similar to what is reported in FASS for account codes. In essence, the project prepares a cash Profit & Loss statement. It then allows Project Managers to interact by comparing... more »

Most foreign service officers move into government furnished residences which - because of global contracts - are all furnished with almost identical pieces worldwide. Prior to arrival at Post the officers don't know what furniture they will have, nor what it looks like, nor does the Post ask what furniture the officer wants. This results in the government paying for furniture and moving costs, only to have the officer... more »

I would like to suggest charging a funding fee to help offset the cost or even make the program self sufficient. The argument against this is that this is for very low and low income, but if the fee is financed in above the LTV like with VA, FHA, and Guranteed RH loans, it would not affect the borrower's payment by much…it would raise their payments less than $10 if it was a 1-2% fee for most loans. There is talk of defunding... more »

A needless benefit that only allows dual military families to pocket additional money. The senior member of the household should be able to file for full BAH and the lower ranked service member would then have their entitlement removed. BAH is offered for housing assistance of their dependants, so why then should both members be entitled if living under the same roof? The money saved would definitely be a huge profit... more »

Why on earther would we allow a privatized housing company to receive full BAH entitlements from different ranked service members who make wide range of BAH entitlements when the service members are living in the exact same floor plan and dwelling? Why should we pay a company so much more overhead say from an Officers BAH rae when they are living in a dwelling that a mid enlisted service member is living in. If the... more »

If u don't have time to read my idea..it's good lol NO MORE SENDING LETTERS!

This idea can be spanned into many departments. Just speaking for the edu dept, we send out more letters than anyone could count e.g. 1 case: Development ltrs when we need more info from the claimant, Certificate of eligibility, award ltrs for enrollments, many correction ltrs from amendments from school hour reductions or inc, withdraws,... more »

All OHA needs to switch to the BAH system. This would drive the OCONUS housing market to be more competitive, with massive benefits to the Air Force, many benefits to the service members, and even, to a lesser degree, some benefits to the local community. Members have absolutely no incentive for saving the Government money under the OHA system.

Short term estimated savings in Guam alone: $45,000,000+ per year

Long term... more »

There are over 30K mil couples (one mil member married to another) on active duty in the USAF. Both spouses are receiving untaxed Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH). One of the member’s is receiving BAH at the “single” rate (i.e. they have a spouse and/or child) rate, while the other is also receiving BAH at the “single” rate. This is obviously necessary, if they are stationed in separate locations. However, if they are... more »

Provide an incentive for people to purchase or rent a place to live that is close to work. At many locations, people commute great distances to get to work. Offering the incentive, which could be in the form of a reduced interest loan or one time payout linked to continued occupancy, would encourage people to live closer to where they work. This would reduce pollution and time spent on the road and away from families,... more »