As the Navy begins major upgrades to barracks for its most junior sailors, thousands will soon need temporary housing during those projects — which is where the private sector comes in. Navy officials are asking private companies to come up with ideas for “swing” spaces so sailors are “not displaced into subpar accommodations during the transition.”

Among quick-fix ideas suggested in a federal contracting notice are pre-built or modular homes, trailers or RVs, semi-permanent housing used for industrial workers sometimes called “man-camps,” and even houseboats. 

“This initiative will support a major nationwide effort to renovate and modernize barracks at naval bases across the country,” Navy Installation Command officials said in a release Monday.  “To safely conduct the deep renovations needed to modernize aging facilities, entire barracks must be vacated.”

A Navy Request for Information posted Friday to SAM.gov, the federal government’s contracting website, asks private contractors to bring solutions to “rapidly provide safe, habitable, code-compliant temporary accommodations” for sailors while “modernization, recapitalization, and commercialization efforts are underway.”

Along with other suggested temporary proposals, the RFI also floated commercial apartment leases or commercial hotel or extended stay unit leases. The National Guard recently announced a lease of corporate rentals for thousands of troops mobilized to Washington, D.C.

In 2025, Navy Installation Command officials announced a $375 million spending plan to upgrade the large barracks buildings where most single junior enlisted sailors live, which it calls “unaccompanied housing.” Spread across 95 projects at 50 bases, officials said, the plan will spend about $300 million to overhaul HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems in those buildings and $75 million on new furniture, kitchens, and floors.

Over the last year, the Pentagon has also announced plans to invest more funding into barracks across the force and bring in more private sector support and address problems identified by the Pentagon’s barracks task force established by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in 2025.

According to the RFI, the Navy expects a shortfall of nearly 4,200 beds as sailors are moved out of permanent buildings, with a“surge” requirement of up to 6,100 beds. These shortfalls will affect sailors in buildings at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii as well as several Navy installations near San Diego, California, and elsewhere in the state.

The RFI also said “recruitment increases” will likely drive a need for roughly 5,000 temporary beds during renovations at training bases including Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, Naval Air Station Meridian, Mississippi, and Naval Support Activity Panama City, Florida.

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