Hello, Friends —

When you wear stars and stripes in service of the United States of America and you need financial assistance for housing while stationed, assistance should be there. I am thrilled to share that Santa Rosa, Escambia, Okaloosa, and Walton counties have endorsed an increase in the Basic Housing Allowance (BAH).

Over this past year, in partnership with local communities in Florida’s First District, we identified that the BAH rate was insufficient to cover the cost of housing for the service members in our district. This deficiency prompted my office to add a provision in the FY 2022 NDAA, which requires the Department of Defense (DoD) to produce a report on housing and the BAH rates in Northwestern Florida due by Spring 2022. The Air Force, upon learning of this discrepancy, provided a temporary increase in the BAH rates for service members who apply for it. From this, we drafted a Resolution and approached the Emerald Coast Association of Realtors, the Pensacola Association of Realtors, and the Navarre Board of Realtors for their input in December 2021.

Once we received approval from the realtor organizations, we approached several county commissioners to include Bob Cole (District 2, Santa Rosa County), Jeff Bergosh (District 1, Escambia County), Mel Ponder (District 5, Okaloosa County) and Danny Glidewell (District 2, Walton County), for their input and support. From this, all four counties have passed their resolutions. Each resolution tells the DoD in a unanimous voice that the constituents of FL-01 fully support the Military Mission line, along with the service members that support the military mission.

Click on the links below to see the full text of the resolutions:

• Escambia County
• Okaloosa County
• Santa Rosa County
• Walton County

Thanks to everyone that made this happen, I am so excited to see our armed service members treated better!