[shy_bear]

It has been a long while since we have lived on a military base. We are moving this summer and will have the opportunity to live on an air force base. I know housing has privatized; so I was wondering what if any rules there are regarding being a licensed foster home on base or does it vary by installation?

[RNB]

Hello shy_bear,

I know you posted this a while ago, but I just started snooping around the military page. I had been looking in the general support pages. Anyway, I am not sure about the privatization of housing you mention. We live on Navy base housing here on Guam and are foster parents. Since we have started two years ago we have known 4 Navy, 2 Air Force, and 1 civilian (NEX) employee and ourselves that are certified foster parents in base housing.

The one thing that this base required, which we did not adhere to, is that every 30 days we were supposed to get a visitor's pass for anyone staying in your house other than those in your orders. I explained to them that we had long term foster kids (1 as long as 20 months until we lost him last week) and I was not going to go down to pass and ID every 30 days. They didn't push the issue.

Also, all our kids have been under the age required to carry ID cards, however, one of our friends that moved from here had 6 foster kids (they adopted them all) and 3 of them were teens. The teens were not allowed in the NEX or DECA, they had to sit in the waiting area. AND our kids are not authorized to use any medical or dental facilities either (unless you petition to make them a ward of your family). So, we have to take all our foster kids out in town to the public clinic.

Lastly, foster kids do not, at least here, give you additional room privledges. Our kids each have bunk beds and cribs in their little 10 x 10 rooms. We have a 3 bedroom and have maxed out with our 2 Bio's and 3 foster kids at one time. It was tight but a lot of fun.

I have found that you may be the first one to request this, so you may have to be firm with them as to what you are doing. All in all this portion of foster care is a no issue. Just check with your housing office, if you haven't already.

Blessings,
RnB