Fort Rucker Housing open to retirees and Civilian Federal Employees...

There were times in the past that service members didn't have a choice to live off base of housing was available on base. There was also a time when it was less expensive to live on base. With the choice and BAH what they are, I'm not surprised that space is available even with the privatization of many base housing complexes.

Great Lakes Naval Base housing is privatized and the contractor rents/leases to civilians also.
It’s all about the greenbacks.

Living off post is more appealing to flight school students and such. You can't go into any off post neighborhood here workout seeing a new lieutenant or warrant with their aircraft sticker on their car (unwise in my opinion but that's besides the point). There's absolutely no shortage of troops, but as long as the option is there, die a single guy especially, it's WAY more financially beneficial to find a cheap place off post. I lived on post here at Rucker when I was stationed here as an enlisted guy and I loved it. Wife and two kids though. As an e5 much better to live on post, as an e6, about broke even. For the convenience, I wanted to live on post again for flight school, but they didn't have houses available, only the older duplexes, which aren't bad, but don't have nearly the storage space and garage as the standalone houses. Yard work is covered, and they even cut you a small check if your utility use is well below average. I'm a light switch nazi so I always got money back. As for the permanent party folks like I used to be, compared to the student population, it's a pretty small portion of the military population here, so even before the cuts if they ALL lived on post, they still wouldn't fill it up. Now that the housing is privatized though, that company stands to lose a LOT of money with all those vacancies, hence broadening the perquisites to live there.