I should specify this was many years ago. Now, I am sure it is much different with the specifics, but as they say, you either live in base housing (hard to get) or get money in your paycheck and find a place off-base.
My dad did both, but being an officer, he had more financial flexibility, but...with six kids to support and a stay at home mom, that was a challenge for him.
Before and after we went overseas, he worked five nights a week at a large department store chain near Washington DC (GEM) as a second job to make ends meet. He would get up at 5:00 AM to work his daytime Navy job, and go straight to work at the department store after, finally getting home at 10:30 PM.
God bless that hardworking man. He wasn’t a demonstrative father, but my mother would say later that he loved us all very much, and he showed it as he could by working that hard to support us.
I can’t imagine how enlisted families can make ends meet living off base...but they must, because they do.
God bless your father. Wish there had been an effort to make his home life a little easier.