The Defense Department will expand its housing assistance program, which helps service members who must sell their homes at a loss because of the struggling national real estate market, by $555 million. The additional money augments a long-standing Defense Department program that helps service members who must sell homes at a loss because they are near bases that closed under base realignment and closure (BRAC). Under the change, eligibility and conditions will broaden to include wounded service members who move for treatment or medical-retirement reasons, surviving families of service members who died on deployment, and normal permanent-change-of-station (PCS) moves from July 1, 2006 through the end of this year. Also, military and DoD civilian employees affected by BRAC will no longer have to differentiate whether base closure or the sagging housing market caused the depreciation of their homes. More information is available on the Homeowners Assistance Program Web site.