As college decision day has passed and millions of incoming freshmen make plans for the upcoming school year, the battle for housing also begins. A reintroduced bill could ease this burden for foster and emancipated youth who face additional hurdles to college housing.
Almost one year after he originally introduced a bill to reform Section 8 vouchers, and 20 years after the section was originally rewritten, U.S. Congressman Greg Landsman (D-OH-1) has reintroduced the “Campus Housing Affordability for Foster Youth Act” on the U.S. House floor.
The proposed bill would change the rules of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8, to allow eligible emancipated youth and current and former foster care youth to use the voucher to pay for on-campus college housing. This voucher would not affect the student’s financial aid package or other financial help from the federal government.
“It’s the kids who arguably need it the most, who’ve gone through an enormous amount of adversity and trauma, and this is a pathway forward for them,” Landsman told CityBeat.
Landsman described his ultimate goal as fixing the housing voucher system to allow any student eligible for a housing voucher to be able to use it on college campuses.
As Ohio’s first congressional district representative, Landsman told CityBeat he has been working closely with the University of Cincinnati on this bill for years, and he believes other universities will also be supportive of the voucher.
“This is something they want,” he said. “They’re pissed that Congress took this away from them.”
Landsman was joined in his reintroduction yesterday by Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY-17), Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-OH-03), Congressman Don Bacon (R-NE-02) and Congressman Zach Nunn (R-IA-03). The bill has also been endorsed by the National Center for Housing and Child Welfare, the National Foster Youth Institute and the Foster Care Alumni of America.
Rebecca Louve Yao, CEO of the National Youth Foster Institute, says, after 20 years of these issues being forced in the background, she is grateful Landsman has brought this bill to the forefront.
“I think one of the reasons that this bill is so bipartisan is that it makes sense,” Yao told CityBeat. “There’s no argument that students deserve to have access to safe housing.”
Yao describes college as a key time for students to make connections and prepare for the future, something that foster and emancipated youth don’t get to participate in when they’re working multiple jobs, worried about where they will sleep that night.
“This is going to take away a lot of barriers that former foster youth are facing on college campuses by allowing them to get on-campus jobs, by allowing them to not have to worry. ‘If I don’t have gas money, I can still go to class,’” Yao said.
She says educational engagement is difficult when all of a student’s focus goes first to safety, something that this bill could help address.
“You don’t even have an address, so how are you filling out FAFSA forms if you don’t have an address?” Yao said.
Since the bill has bipartisan support and makes no changes to the current budget, Landsman predicts it will pass.
“The Senate, in its infinite wisdom, decided to take it away from everyone,” Landsman said, referencing the voucher change in 2005. “And no one’s fixed it. I’m determined to fix it.”
This article appears in Jun 11-24, 2025.