New system eases search for available housing

  • Published
  • By Rhonda Siciliano
  • 66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HANSCOM AFB, Mass. --  The Hanscom Government Housing office has joined other bases in implementing a new internet-based system that will make the search for available housing both convenient and easy for military members and their families.

The Automated Housing Referral Network is a nationwide, joint service, Department of Defense sponsored Web site that offers one-stop shopping of available housing to incoming military and their families at scores of bases across the country. The Web site www.AHRN.com directly connects service members with local property managers throughout the country, often facilitating a door-to-door move that saves time, expenses and headaches. When military members move, this is the site to check and see what housing choices are available in the area they will be settling. Ninety-five bases from all the different services are already online and available for review and more are continually being added.

"Through this Web site, incoming military and families are able to reach out from anywhere and get an updated list of available housing, from a large pool of diverse properties that would be available upon their arrival. This affects their move to either here at Hanscom or at any other base listed on the site for all the different service members," said Adeline Morris, Government Housing assistant.

The Web site allows local property managers, including individual military members, to register their homes or properties free of charge. This could be done several months before the property would even be available. These property listings are then easily visible to incoming personnel when they search the site for available housing.

"The government housing office is now working to promote the Web site to all the Hanscom local property managers to ensure that it gets populated with as many adequate and affordable housing listings as possible," Ms. Morris said. "This system also saves our staff time and resources so that we can better focus our efforts on doing site visits to these properties to ensure that military members are being offered quality housing that meets their needs."

The AHRN Web site already has a number of local area listings both on and off base and the housing office is looking forward to expanding that even more by encouraging local property managers to register in the system. "The larger the database, the more useful it will be to people searching for places to live," Ms. Morris said. To make registering properties a worry-free proposition, AHRN incorporates several layers of privacy protection.

In return for registering their properties, AHRN provides property owners with a consistent resource of quality tenants. "It's a win-win for everyone who uses the site," Ms. Morris said.

The service is available to all servicemembers that are supported by the Hanscom Housing office.

Members may access the Web site from their work, in their leisure from their home, or at the computers set up in the housing office for customer use, which is located in Building 1217.

For more detailed information about the local AHRN Web site, contact the Hanscom Housing office at (781) 377-3785 or visit the Web site at www.AHRN.com to list your property or search for one today.