Homesteading in Military Campgrounds and RV Parks

I have read several reviews regarding Homesteaders in RV parks and campgrounds. I have visited a couple of the campgrounds and found this to be the case where there are folks that reside full time in the Military Campgrounds and RV parks, I thought there were rules that prohibited such full time residences. Does anyone have any comments regarding this practice. Ft. Knox, Keesler AFB and Camp Atterbury are just three that come to mind that have full time residents........

Just search this forum for "Homesteaders" and you'll see that many people have made comments about this subject. If I were to summarize what I've read over the years, I'd say that in spite of rules for running Famcamps in each service, Base Commanders have a lot of latitude in running their individual MWR activities. Most retired RV'ers think homesteading is wrong with lots of good reasons given. I've also heard some reasonable reasons for allowing it, such as keeping park occupancy high, humanitarian reasons like after hurricane Katrina, and active duty folks with unique situations that strike a cord with the base leadership. I don't think any of us that use military campgrounds are expecting any significant changes. Just my opinion. Bob

Over the years, we have stayed in many Fam-Camps. Almost all of them had some amount of Homesteading taking place. Hands down the worst base we have visited for this problem was Dover AFB DE. They have a very small facility with only 10 sites. Seven of those sites were taken up by personnel assigned there. One Squadron Commander, two Senior NCO's, two Jr NCO's and a civilian contractor. I was told by a SSgt that was homesteading that the Squadron Commander had been there for two years. If the base is going to allow this to continue, then eliminate the 14 day stay limit.

Are long term campers hogging all the premium space Station? Then write a letter to the base commander and also cc it to the Department of Defense. Unless people make it known it will not change. I have run across many bases that have LONG time campers into the years. A letter to the park manager means nothing since many times they are the ones overstepping their authority. Also convince others to write letters. Military RV parks are "Recretional" parks not home sites. Why should I have to park in the blazing hot sun jbecause a bunch of homesteaders have all the shaded sites?

I'm not sure what exactly constitutes homesteading. Seems to me folks just get upset if they can't get the spot they want, and consistently blame it on "homesteading". I've stayed for weeks at a time in some campgrounds and for very short stays in others. I really don't get why anyone should care how long I stay, as long as I pay my bill, keep a clean site don't cause a disturbance, and move at the required frequency. I can honestly say that I've never heard anyone complain about how often people golf, bowl, swim, or use any of the other MWR facilities. And, I know of no frequency of use restrictions on these facilities like there are with campgrounds. Perhaps that's because it seems to always be the occasional users of FAMCAMPs that do a lot of complaining? I'm not sure. In fact, I'm of the opposite mind from a lot of the homestead complainers. I think three to six months is very reasonable for a stay, and if the base has vacancies, another 3 to 6 months should be fine. In fact, I'd bet that many of the homestead complainers are unaware that base housing on many bases allow retirees (and others) to lease base housing now that it is mostly privatized. If I can lease a house on base, why should anyone care that I rent a site in the RV park for a few months? If the contractor of base housing can make money off of retirees, why not MWR? Allowing longer term RVers makes sense to me in that those are the folks who consistently provide funds more-so than the one or two nights and gone crowd. In any event, it seems to me that a lot of the problem could be resolved if the DoD would require bases to use reservations, and set a standard (say...6-months) for all FAMCAMPs with a required exit period before another reservation could begin. It's been my experience that the short-frequency stay limits of 2-weeks and such often are used by the MWR folks to prevent having to properly manage who does and does not have priority. In effect, this prevents the folks who should have unrestricted access according to the DoD Instruction, from actually being able to have the priority they earned.

I guess it's just a difference in opinion. Base housing is intended for full time living not recreational use. A campground is intended for recreational use and not full time living. If a military campground has such low occupancy that it needs the income to stay open, I don't think you'd hear complaints from recreational/short term campers if they allow longer stays if they leave enough sites open for access. In the case of Mayport Naval Station, with the previous max stay of two weeks, it was always at a high level of occupancy especially in the winter. I hope it's obvious that allowing a camper to stay for six months prevents others (24 one week stays) from being able to enjoy a spectacular military campground.