Photo By Chief Petty Officer Nathan Carpenter | NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain (Dec. 29, 2021) Newly constructed playgrounds are now open...... read more read more
Naval Station (NAVSTA) Rota housing department provides the community with services as diverse as the community it serves. From unaccompanied housing and family housing to the housing referral office assisting active duty and civilians with their contracts for off-base houses, the housing team works to improve their customers’ quality of life through houses, services, and projects.
The housing team remains busy on a normal year with the constant movement of U.S. service members, civilians, and their families moving to and from Rota. This year, the housing team had the added challenge of the coordination and support of two homeport shifts for the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers USS Paul Ignatius (DDG 117) and USS Bulkeley (DDG 84).
“We had to make sure families were properly briefed about documentation they needed in order to get entitlements once in Spain,” said Inma Perez, housing supervisor for NAVSTA Rota Housing Service Center. “The fact that families were soon left alone as military spouses had to return to the ship, made the team work harder to make sure they were properly settled in an expedited manner.”
The team supported these ships in addition to the rotation of the Sailors and families of USS Porter (DDG 78) and USS Ross (DDG 71) back to the United States. All these transitions occurred during the already busy time of peak PCS season.
“We have got more than 2,000 monthly visits during the summer season,” said Perez.
For those wishing to remain on base, the family housing team worked to keep all available units ready for occupancy while continuing its progression through the phases of the overall NAVSTA Rota housing renovation project.
During 2022, NAVSTA Rota Housing was able to return 30 renovated houses to the inventory, with a projected additional 82 three-bedroom units being completed in 2023.
Within family housing, residents had numerous quality of life initiatives to boast overall morale. This included the annual yard of the month program where one family each month was recognized by installation leadership for their outstanding yard.
Another major project was the consolidation of the playgrounds within Las Palmeras family housing area. This project included removal, renovation and installation of new playgrounds.
“The project was created for the Las Palmeras families and Rota community, and designed to refresh and update old, dated playground equipment,” said Vernon Nelson, housing director for NAVSTA Rota. “Our primary focus was on renovating and installing four main kid-friendly playgrounds throughout the Las Palmeras family housing community.”
For the unaccompanied service members of the installation, Rocio Caballeros, acting director for unaccompanied housing (UH) at NAVSTA Rota, and the team work to fill and turn over rooms at the 18 barracks located within the installation.
“One of the biggest challenges this year was the number of insufficient beds for the DDGs’ turnover at Rota,” explained Caballeros of when there newly arrived destroyers as well as Porter and Ross were all still in Rota. “NAVSTA Rota is designated as homeport ashore location requiring single shipboard Sailors to be housed ashore when in port.”
To counter this problem, NAVSTA Rota UH team has a project in the works to add additional beds to its barracks. Thus far, 62 beds have been added, with almost 500 additional beds being added by August 2023.
Additional beds is just one way that the UH team is working to improve life of their residents. Cabelleros also explained that the team has looked for new ways to communicate with their residents.
“The pandemic shifted the way UH communicates with their residents,” she said. “UH has just implemented the new QR code for reporting that is being used for routine requests, such as maintenance requests and termination inspections appointments. This new system has increased interaction and engagement with the Sailors with technology at their fingertips.”
This is just one of the innovative ways that the housing team has adapted to better serve their customers. As they look forward to 2023 and the completion of several large projects, they will continue to assist the community in making NAVSTA Rota a “home” for the active duty, civilians, and families.
| Date Taken: | 12.15.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 12.22.2022 10:32 |
| Story ID: | 435745 |
| Location: | ES |
| Web Views: | 323 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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