Portland isn’t known for it’s huge military presence, but we know that if you’re a soldier, the military in Portland is still huge to you. Troops are rarely relocated to Portland for any kind of long term stationing, but when they are they can take advantage of the area’s rich outdoor activities, diverse cultural offerings and flexible storage options at more than 100 different facilities. Whether you’re a part of the 142nd Fighter Wing at the Portland Air National Guard Base or you’re at Station Portland protecting the Oregon coast and beyond, we’ve got the details on how storage in Portland affects military users.
Storage on the Go
As a military member, you know exactly what a crazy schedule looks like. At some point during your career, you’ve probably been relocated even if just temporarily for training purposes. We think that your storage facility should be just as flexible as you are. Luckily, storage facilities offer month-to-month leases for the most part, making your commitment level to your unit pretty minimal. Another thing that makes your life even easier is
online bill pay. The last thing you have time for when traveling is dropping off a check or running over to your storage facility to swipe a credit card. Another way to make your storage facility fit your needs is to choose a facility that allows for
24 hour access. If you don’t work a 9 to 5 schedule, it makes no sense to rent at a facility that only allows for 9 to 5 access.
Weapons Storage and Climate Control
If you’ve got a personal firearm, you’ve got a few different options for
gun storage if you can’t or don’t want to store it at home. Because neither base in the Portland area offers housing, you won’t be dealing with trying to store it there. Your first option is to talk to storage facilities near you and see whether or not they allow you to store weapons there. Many will not, and the few that will allow you to will not allow you to store ammunition. You can also contact gun stores and see about storing with them. If the only thing you’re storing is a weapon, you don’t exactly need a 10x10 space, so look for facilities that have lockers available, as these are just the right size for your needs and they’re usually pretty cheap.
Storage and Deployment
Sometimes even when you take advantage of online bill pay or trust in someone else to make sure your storage unit rent gets paid while you’re deployed, things go wrong. You may assume that the military is going to punish you and dock or pay and that the storage facility is going to auction off your stuff. While both of these situations can and certainly do happen, they’re not always supposed to happen. We don’t expect you to read a bunch of boring documents on
lien laws, so let’s just fill you in on what you need to know. Thanks to a little thing called the Servicemember Civil Relief Act, that storage facility can’t necessarily auction off your belongings if you lapse on paying rent. It’s illegal, and let’s be honest, it doesn’t make the storage facility look very good. Obviously you would never use this as an excuse to not pay for your storage unit, but it’s something to remember if you ever do find yourself deployed.
