---
kind: "section"
citation: "10 U.S.C. § 2824"
title: "10"
title_heading: "Armed Forces"
number: "2824"
heading: "Authorization for acquisition of existing family housing in lieu of construction"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/10/2824"
units:
  - "Subtitle A — General Military Law"
  - "Part IV — Service, Supply, and Property"
  - "Chapter 169 — Military Construction and Military Family Housing"
  - "Subchapter II — Military Family Housing"
---

# §2824. Authorization for acquisition of existing family housing in lieu of construction

- (a) In lieu of constructing any family housing units authorized by law to be constructed, the [Secretary concerned](/usc/10/2801.md?p=c-5) may acquire sole interest in existing family housing units that are privately owned or that are held by the [Department](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-6) of Housing and Urban Development, except that in foreign countries the [Secretary concerned](/usc/10/2801.md?p=c-5) may acquire less than sole interest in existing family housing units.
- (b) When authority provided by law to construct [military](/usc/10/801.md?p=8) family housing units is used to acquire existing family housing units under [subsection (a)](#a), the authority [includes](/usc/10/101.md?p=g-4) authority to acquire interests in land.
- (c) The net floor area of a family housing unit acquired under the authority of this section may not exceed the applicable limitation specified in [section 2826 of this title](/usc/10/2826.md). The [Secretary concerned](/usc/10/2801.md?p=c-5) may waive the limitation set forth in the preceding sentence to family housing units acquired under this section during the five-year period beginning on February 10, 1996.
- (d) Family housing units may not be acquired under this section through the exercise of eminent domain authority.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 97–214, § 2(a), July 12, 1982, 96 Stat. 159; amended Pub. L. 104–106, div. B, title XXVIII, § 2813, Feb. 10, 1996, 110 Stat. 553; Pub. L. 104–201, div. A, title X, § 1074(a)(17), Sept. 23, 1996, 110 Stat. 2659.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1996—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 104–201 substituted “February 10, 1996” for “the date of the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996”.

Pub. L. 104–106 inserted at end “The Secretary concerned may waive the limitation set forth in the preceding sentence to family housing units acquired under this section during the five-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996.”

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### 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.