A Department of Defense-sponsored website that allows service members to search for off-post housing near military installations is available for the Fort Detrick area.

The site — www.ahrn.com — makes finding affordable rental housing convenient for incoming active-duty service members, as well as civilians and retired service members, according to Sherry Heffner, a project assistant for Fort Detrick's Residential Communities Initiative, which helps place soldiers in housing.

"It makes it so much easier for folks who aren't here to see what's out there," she said.

The Automated Housing Referral Network, operated by Wisconsin-based Runzheimer International, was launched in May. Runzheimer announced its availability last week.

Using the website, free to users and paid for by the DoD, area property managers can enter details of their rental units and post pictures and floorplans. About 130 Frederick -area properties are listed in the database, Heffner said.

In a searchable database similar to commercial apartment search websites, service members can find properties that match their preferred specifications, such as number of bedrooms, maximum rent, zip code and type of unit, from apartment to townhouse to single-family home.

The website has made keeping track of available off-post housing infinitely easier for incoming Fort Detrick soldiers, Heffner said. The system replaced an archaic document of 12 to 25 pages of typed, often outdated, property listings.

To prevent dead-end searches of units no longer available for rent, property managers must confirm every 30 days the unit is still available or it is removed from the database. Property managers with units in roughly an hour radius from military bases may enter properties in the database.

The website also includes a message system that allows communication directly between the property owners and prospective renters. Service members can use messaging to inquire about properties any time.

AHRN was released in June 2004 and is available for areas near 94 military installations throughout the country. The DoD is phasing in the network throughout the continental United States, according to Runzheimer program manager Paul Giese.

The network reaches nearly all of Maryland, Giese said. AHRN became available to service members and property managers near Aberdeen Proving Ground this spring.

Heffner said her office has been contacting apartment and property managers, in addition to hotels that provide temporary lodging, to alert them the website is available.

"The military has some really great folks out there," she said. "It's great for them (the managers) to be able to support them in their mission."