“To amend the United States Housing Act of 1937 to provide housing assistance for youth and young adults who are unstably housed.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section designates the Act as the “Homes for Young Adults Act of 2025” and sets forth its table of contents.
This section sets forth congressional findings on youth and young adult homelessness, including that an estimated 4.2 million experience it annually; it disproportionately affects Black, Indigenous, other youth of color, and LGBTQ+ communities; effective programs exist but face systemic access barriers; and removing housing barriers can reduce crowding, poverty, and homelessness while improving outcomes and lowering healthcare costs. The findings further note that the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program—which provides tenant-based rental assistance—reaches only about a quarter of eligible households due to funding limits and eligibility restrictions, average wait times for housing are 132 to 140 days, and greater cooperation among federal agencies including the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Education, and Health and Human Services is needed.
This section defines key terms for purposes of the Act, including (1) “Secretary” as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; and (2) “youths and young adults” as individuals who are 18 years old or older but not older than 30 years old, or emancipated minors under applicable state law.
This section establishes an entitlement to tenant-based rental assistance under section 8(o) of the U.S. Housing Act (i.e., Housing Choice Vouchers) for any otherwise eligible household consisting of or including a youth or young adult, beginning in FY2027 and for each fiscal year thereafter, as long as the household remains eligible. (The Housing Choice Voucher program aids low-income families in renting privately owned housing by subsidizing a portion of their rent, with payment standards generally set at fair market rent levels.) The section (1) provides mandatory appropriations of necessary amounts for such vouchers and related administrative fees under sections 8(q) and 23(h)(1); (2) directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to encourage regional public housing agency (PHA) consortia for administration and to designate PHAs where needed; (3) requires PHAs to make available specified support services (e.g., housing navigation, job-skill training, legal aid, and safety planning) to assisted youth and young adults, with clear information on access; (4) ensures assisted households' sole discretion in choosing dwelling units based on factors such as geography, cost of living, access to services, and housing type; (5) mandates PHA provision of an ombudsman for mediation (including discrimination claims) and an appeal process; (6) applies standard section 8(o) eligibility rules regarding citizenship, immigration, or migratory status; (7) requires protections for household privacy; and (8) directs inclusion of homeless youth and young adults in related studies and reports.
This section authorizes the Secretary, for FY2027 and each fiscal year thereafter, to (1) increase administrative fees under the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program (42 U.S.C. 1437u(h)(1)) for public housing agencies (PHAs) meeting Secretary-established standards to encourage coordination of Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8(o)) assistance for participation of youths and young adults—including single, parenting, or aging out of foster care or other youth-serving systems—in FSS programs, and voluntary landlord participation to house such voucher holders without discrimination based on credit history, income, criminal or legal history, or migratory status; and (2) provide incentive awards under the FSS program (42 U.S.C. 1437u(i)) to PHAs coordinating Section 8(o) assistance for such youth participation. (The FSS program coordinates public and private resources with housing assistance under Sections 8 and 9 to promote economic self-sufficiency for eligible families.)
This section directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to issue regulations necessary to implement section 8(o)(8)(G) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)(8)(G))—concerning enforcement of housing quality standards in the Housing Choice Voucher program—within 12 months of enactment, with such regulations taking effect no later than 90 days after issuance.
This section limits public housing agencies' elective screening of applicants for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program (i.e., tenant-based rental assistance for low-income families) to criteria directly related to an applicant's ability to fulfill the obligations of an assisted lease and requires consideration of mitigating circumstances, including discriminations against income, credit history, parental status, marital status, migratory status, or age. The section further requires that any applicant or participant determined ineligible for admission or continued participation receive notice of the basis for the determination and, within a reasonable time, an opportunity for an informal hearing at which mitigating circumstances—including remedial conduct after notice—are considered.
This section directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to improve access to federally conducted and federally assisted housing programs for individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) by (1) convening, within 90 days of enactment, a task force of industry groups, fund recipients, community-based organizations serving LEP individuals, civil rights groups, and stakeholders to identify vital documents (e.g., Department forms, property documents) for translation, with the task force meeting at least twice yearly; (2) producing translations of those documents in necessary languages within six months after identification and posting them on the HUD website and in a clearinghouse; and (3) developing and implementing a plan to assist fund recipients, including creation of a housing information resource center. The center, available in print and online, must provide (A) translations of vital documents; (B) a 24-hour toll-free interpretation hotline for program information, application assistance, and communication with providers; (C) a clearinghouse of templates and documents (e.g., administrative, legal, educational materials on rights and remedies); (D) a study of best practices with a report and recommendations to the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee within 18 months of enactment; and (E) materials on culturally and linguistically competent services. This section further requires the Secretary to submit a compliance report to those committees within six months of enactment and annually thereafter.