Edwards AFB News

New system helps servicemembers find homes

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Julius Delos Reyes
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Finding a new home after a permanent change of station is difficult. This is a lesson learned by Senior Master Sgt. Mark Deluze, Air Force Flight Test Center superintendent. 

Sergeant Deluze has made 12 PCS moves in his 23 years of service, he said. Out of those 12, he lived off base half of the time. To find off-base housing, he usually looked online at commercial realtors' Web sites. 

To help servicemembers look for housing, the Department of Defense has launched the Automated Housing Referral Network. The program is now available to Team Edwards. Servicemembers can visit the AHRN Web site at www.AHRN.com.

"Automated Housing Referral Network is an online housing referral solution that directly connects servicemembers and their families with available housing in the community," said Lisa Townsend, a project director with PRIDE Industries, a subcontractor on the AHRN project. 

It is an efficient referral management tool for base housing offices to connect customers with homes 24 hours a day, Ms. Townsend said. It is also a no-cost method for property managers to market their available rentals directly to servicemembers and their families. 

AHRN features available housing including homes for rent, purchase, sale and private public ventures. The program also allows servicemembers to integrate their basic allowance for housing. Through AHRN, military members can find out if the house was inspected by the base housing office. The AHRN also features rental partnership programs, content management and general administration. 

The AHRN system is designed to serve three primary user groups -- the military member and their family, property managers and military housing offices, Ms. Townsend said.

Servicemembers are able to determine the availability of rental housing according to size, type and location. 

The Department of Defense moved to requisitioning AHRN because about 70 percent of servicemembers live in rental units or in privately owned homes, she said. The number will continue to increase as Department of Defense moves toward privatized housing efforts, longer assignments and transformation of forces. 

"AHRN will give a consistent way to get housing information to servicemembers when they needed it and how they needed it," Ms. Townsend said. 

Sergeant Deluze said AHRN is a great program that will help ease the burden of finding homes off base.

"AHRN encompasses a myriad of professionals who can help military members find a place to live within their constraints," he said. "I think it is going to be easier to find houses through AHRN."