A lot for a studying curve.
Capt. Beth Regoli, the brand new commander of Naval Air Station Key West, barely had time to unpack earlier than operating headlong into Key West’s housing disaster.
Regoli took the helm from Capt. Mark Sohaney on Might 12 and instantly had a lot on her plate, with a Might 15 information article on navy.com concerning the lack of housing for junior sailors at NAS Key West.
The island’s already crucial housing scarcity, which impacts each navy personnel and civilians, was exacerbated in latest weeks by the Navy’s closure of two barracks buildings that may home as much as 100 single sailors.
The choice to shut the barracks buildings for renovations occurred months in the past beneath Sohaney’s command. Regoli was not concerned within the discussions or resolution, and the navy.com article revealed the day earlier than her first official day on Monday.
However she is now tasked with discovering options.
“Housing options are necessary because the well being and security of our sailors is a prime precedence,” Regoli instructed the Keys Weekly on Wednesday. “I’m wanting ahead to persevering with an awesome working relationship with the Public Non-public Enterprise workplace, and discovering options to upgrading and renovating houses for our sailors and households.”
The closure pressured about 60 junior sailors, lately stationed to Key West, to compete for restricted on-base housing choices or for personal rental residences. Within the wildly costly Key West housing market, rents sometimes exceed the $2,364 month-to-month housing allowance that junior sailors with no dependents obtain in Key West.
With common rents for a one-bedroom house in Key West hovering round $3,000, sailors keen to pay the distinction between their allowance and their lease nonetheless should discover an out there unit — and provide you with first and final months’ lease and a safety deposit.
“The following choice — privatized base housing — can be a nonstarter for younger, single sailors,” the article states.
Naval Air Station Key West spokeswoman Danette Baso Silvers acknowledged to navy.com that the present wait-list for privatized housing ‘might be as much as 4 months.’
“Within the interim, Silvers added, the Navy is making out there vacation-rental fashion trailers on navy property, however sailors are charged the identical fee as vacationing navy personnel — $127 a day or $3,810 per thirty days. Break up between two sailors, the lease falls inside their housing allowance. Of the 60 sailors impacted by the barracks closure, solely 19 have but to search out various housing, Silvers instructed navy.com.”
Navy demolished, however didn’t exchange 166 models at Sigsbee,
Closure of the 2 barracks buildings isn’t the one housing difficulty at Naval Air Station Key West, the place 166 townhomes at Sigsbee Park sat empty and unused for greater than a decade after being flooded by Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
The Key West metropolis fee in 2016 requested Navy personnel to expedite the restore or substitute of these models. Returning these 166 models to energetic use for navy personnel would alleviate the competitors between navy members and civilians for personal rental housing, Metropolis Commissioner Sam Kaufman mentioned on the time.
5 years later, in Might 2021, the Navy demolished these 166 townhomes at Sigsbee Park, and has but to interchange them. The Naval Amenities Command Southeast, which manages navy properties, solicited proposals from builders. These proposals have been due in December 2021.
“Now there are 18.13 acres of inexperienced house. We’re awaiting a feasibility examine after which management will be capable to decide choices for the property,” Silvers mentioned on Wednesday, however didn’t have a timeline for the feasibility examine.
“I’m wanting ahead to the subsequent steps for the 18.13 acres on Sigsbee Park so we will decide choices to be used of that property,” Regoli added.
