Coast Guard Safe Homes Initiative

Information for Members, Spouses and Housing Officials

Overview

The Coast Guard's Safe Homes Initiative is a service-wide effort to ensure our housing units are free from environmental health risks. The initiative focuses on units co-located near lighthouses and those with a history of lead, asbestos, and radon findings.

Questions?

Most questions regarding Coast Guard housing are best answered by the Local and Area Housing Authorities. If you are unsure of where to direct your question or would like to provide suggestions to the Safe Homes Initiative team, please email: HQS-SMB-CG-Housing@uscg.mil. This email is monitored by the Housing Division of Coast Guard Headquarters; we are happy to take feedback or direct specific questions to the best point of contact.

Process

The Safe Homes Initiative uses a three-step process to ensure homes are free from environmental hazards and in compliance with all federal regulations:

  1. Screen all active Coast Guard-owned family homes.  
  2. Identify homes that may pose an environmental risk to residents.
  3. Take appropriate action; recommended actions could be updating records, contracting housing assessments, correcting deficiencies, or relocating the family.

If a home is deemed to have an unsafe environment for residents after a housing assessment (taking into consideration varying standards for adults, children, and pregnant mothers), and the home cannot be quickly remediated, a "Housing Tri-P" will meet in person to validate the need for relocation. This Tri-P consists of leadership from CG-13 (policy), CG-11 (medical), and CG-43 (engineering).

If relocation is necessary:

  1. The family receives a notification letter and informational packet.
  2. The family is personally contacted by their Local Housing Authority in coordination with their Base Housing Authority, who will guide them through the relocation process.
  3. The family will have a conference call with the Base and Local Housing Authorities, as well as the appropriate Command Master/Senior Chief or Gold/Silver Badge, and a member of the Coast Guard Headquarters Housing Tri-P.

Support

Our members' safety is our top priority. At the same time, any type of assessment and mitigation work can be quite disruptive. The Coast Guard will work with each member individually to reduce the inconvenience as much as possible.

The Service has also developed a seven-part entitlement package that relocating families may be eligible to receive:

  1. A fully funded local government move
  2. Partial DLA, paid up front
  3. Three months advance BAH, if desired
  4. Full BAH upon departure from CG Housing
  5. Access to a government lease
  6. Access to temporary, government-funded quarters, to gap any time awaiting follow-on housing
  7. Enhanced Coast Guard Mutual Assistance support (CGMA support includes a $1,000 grant to supplement partial DLA, an interest-free loan up to $6,000, and access to the PCS Child Care program up to a maximum of $450 – even if a member has already used it for that year.)

The Coast Guard is committed to communicating with members throughout this process. News and resources will be added to this website as soon as they become available – please check back frequently. Additionally, Local  and Base Housing Offices (LHOs and AHOs)   are available to answer any questions..

We will continue to work together to guarantee safe homes in the Coast Guard. As we do this, we endeavor to aggressively provide customer service to those families disrupted by any necessary assessments, remediation, or relocations.

Resources