The Trump administration is considering a two year time limit on federal housing vouchers, which low income families use to pay their rent.

That could prematurely kick thousands of Kentuckians out of their homes.

It could also free up more vouchers for those who have been on a lengthy waitlist.

Our June Lefler has more.

Angelica Williams is spending a Friday afternoon with her son.

We love to have fun together.

We like the zoo, water park, science center.

He loves to draw.

I like to cultivate his gifts to make sure that he likes to do what he likes to do.

The two live at Family Scholar House, which provides Williams with affordable housing, childcare and other support.

It's what's allowed her to switch from being a full time worker to a full time student.

It is clear that the standard is academic success, academic progress and it is my responsibility to be a full time student.

I looked at it as my grades pay my rent, so I need to go get this a family Scholar house was started by nuns dedicated to educating women.

Does everybody make it?

Know everybody doesn't make it but those that do.

And that's about 86% get a degree while they live with us.

They get the degree that they need to be active in the workforce in a career, not just an entry level job.

The program offers space and support, but to subsidize the rent.

Participants rely on federal housing vouchers, something President Donald Trump wants to overhaul.

This summer, NPR reported that the federal housing agency is drafting a rule to put work requirements and a two year time limit on vouchers, with exceptions for seniors and those with disabilities.

This doesn't mesh with the Family Scholar model.

A two year time limit isn't all that different from a three year time limit, but what kind of education you can get in two years, and what kind of education you can get in 3 or 3 and a half is very different.

Kathy Dykstra says most graduates of her program go into health care, and it's important that those who can get higher level degrees do so.

We need our friends BSN.

We need people who are positioned to go in their administration in health care.

If if you only have two years, you'd have a whole lot of CNAs and Lpns.

But who would you have above that?

Some policy experts say vouchers need to be reined in with time limits.

Housing assistance is not available for everybody.

They're really long waiting lists, and those who are on housing assistance tend to stay now for a very long time.

And so my position in favor of some time limit, not necessarily the two year limit, is based on the idea that it's not fair for people to get kind of a lifetime ticket for subsidized housing, while millions of others people wait on the waiting list.

That's true for Kentucky.

The Kentucky Housing Corporation, which administers vouchers in 80 plus counties, says there's more people on the waiting list than actually have a voucher in hand.

And people tend to wait for 1 to 3 years before getting one.

Still, an official with the state housing agency worries the rule would backfire.

I could see some folks thinking that the upside to a 24 month limit is it would let more folks get a chance at a voucher, but only for 24 months, which may not be long enough for them to build their self-sufficiency.

So then they're back to being unstable right after that.

Wendy Smith says local housing markets are really tough on renters right now.

The average rent for someone with a voucher is $1,100 a month, though their monthly income is barely more than that.

Last year, Kentucky Housing Corporation released a report that found that we have 206,000 units that we need to build to have enough housing across Kentucky to bring cost down and housing our Kentuckians in a unit that they can afford.

So in that environment where we don't have enough housing, even for middle income folks, let alone for poor folks in Kentucky, the idea that we would suddenly create a 24 month limit, it takes a long time to get units built.

It's not like we're suddenly going to fill our supply gap in time to have enough affordable housing for everyone who might need it.

It just seems a little, tone deaf and not in pace with what's going on in our housing market, in our economy right now.

Even Howard Hughes isn't keen on two years.

He'd prefer five years, which falls in line with the Federal Cash Assistance Program.

And he wishes voucher holders didn't have to pay a percentage of their income.

Who would sign a lease?

The more you make money you make, the more red you pay.

Nobody would sign that lease except when we ask that of poor people.

So let's change that.

Let people save money.

Prepare to exit, but not make the exit to steep.

Federal officials have said limits will bring self-sufficiency.

Dykstra says she knows how to get people there.

Time is an artificial construct.

We made it up.

We know we did.

But progress.

You can set a goal and measure towards that progress.

The proposed time limit is not official, but if it does become real and applied to those already with the housing voucher, that could interrupt plans for this aspiring social worker.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Jen Lefler.

Some landlords see housing vouchers as a reliable source of income from tenants.

We reached out to landlord associations in Kentucky to hear their thoughts about this proposed change, but they did not respond.