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Title 10, Armed ForcesRelease 119-110

§2826 Military Family Housing: Local Comparability of Room Patterns and Floor Areas

Title 10 › Subtitle A — General Military Law › PART IV — SERVICE, SUPPLY, AND PROPERTY › CHAPTER 169 — MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND MILITARY FAMILY HOUSING › SUBCHAPTER II — MILITARY FAMILY HOUSING › § 2826

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary in charge must make sure that when military family housing is built, bought, or improved in an area, the room layouts and sizes match those of similar private housing in that same area. When asking Congress for permission to do the work, the Secretary must list the net floor area for each housing unit. Net floor area means the square feet inside the outside walls and does not include unfinished basements or attics, utility spaces, garages or carports, open or screened porches, stairwells, or space used for a solar-energy system.

Full Legal Text

Title 10, §2826

Armed Forces, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Local Comparability.—
In the construction, acquisition, and improvement of military family housing, the Secretary concerned shall ensure that the room patterns and floor areas of military family housing in a particular locality (as designated by the Secretary concerned for purposes of this section) are similar to room patterns and floor areas of similar housing in the private sector in that locality.
(b)Requests for Authority for Military Family Housing.—
(1)In submitting to Congress a request for authority to carry out the construction, acquisition, or improvement of military family housing, the Secretary concerned shall include in the request information on the net floor area of each unit of military family housing to be constructed, acquired, or improved under the authority.
(2)In this subsection, the term “net floor area”, in the case of a military family housing unit, means the total number of square feet of the floor space inside the exterior walls of the unit, excluding the floor area of an unfinished basement, an unfinished attic, a utility space, a garage, a carport, an open or insect-screened porch, a stairwell, and any space used for a solar-energy system.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2000—Pub. L. 106–398 amended section catchline and text generally. Prior to amendment, section consisted of subsecs. (a) to (i) which limited the net floor area allowed in the

Construction

, acquisition, and improvement of military family housing units. 1996—Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 104–106, § 2814, struck out at end “The authority provided by this subsection shall expire on
September 30, 1994.” Subsec. (i). Pub. L. 104–106, § 2815, added subsec. (i). Subsec. (i)(1). Pub. L. 104–201 substituted “
February 10, 1996” for “the date of the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996”. 1991—Subsecs. (d) to (h). Pub. L. 102–190 added subsecs. (d) and (e) and redesignated former subsecs. (d) to (f) as (f) to (h), respectively. 1987—Subsec. (f). Pub. L. 100–26 inserted “the term” after “In this section,”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2000 Amendment Pub. L. 106–398, § 1 [div. B, title XXVIII, § 2803(b)], Oct. 30, 2000, 114 Stat. 1654, 1654A–413, provided that: “(1) The

Amendments

made by subsection (a) [amending this section] shall take effect on October 1, 2001, but the Secretary of Defense shall anticipate the requirements of section 2826 of title 10, United States Code, as added by such subsection, when preparing the budget request for new

Construction

, acquisition, or improvement of military family housing for fiscal year 2002. “(2) Section 2826 of title 10, United States Code, as in effect on September 30, 2001, shall continue to apply with respect to the

Construction

, acquisition, or improvement of military family housing commenced on or before that date.”

Effective Date

For

Effective Date

and applicability of section, see section 12(a) of Pub. L. 97–214, set out as a note under section 2801 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

10 U.S.C. § 2826

Title 10, Armed Forces

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110