What are the geographical units for CONUS COLA?
The basic geographical area for the CONUS COLA program is the Military Housing Area (MHA). MHA boundaries are established by the BAH program and applied to that program as well as CONUS COLA. Over 98 percent of Service members assigned to duty in the continental US are assigned to duty in areas designated as MHAs. Representatives from each of the Uniformed Services meet periodically to review the boundaries and determine which zip codes to incorporate in each of the more than 350 MHAs. MHAs are normally named for a military installation or city. Other, non-MHA areas, are known as County Cost Groups (CCGs). These are locations outside of metropolitan areas and major installations. For purposes of CONUS COLA, specific locations are normally associated with a larger geographical unit such as a county, but they may be grouped within a region, or with other towns on the basis of similarities in location such as distance from larger urban areas or major transportation routes.
