Bell Cambridge feared two failed college classes might end her dream of earning a degree.
After years of couch surfing throughout middle and high school, the University of Oregon student had finally found stability in college. But during the spring term of her freshman year, she failed two classes, saddling her with a bill that the PathwayOregon scholarship funding her tuition and other costs wouldn’t cover.
“For a normal student. No biggie, people don’t pass classes; it happens,” Cambridge said. “For a Pathway student, that’s a really big problem because we are not covered to take any courses in repeat.”
Without financial assistance, Cambridge would have had to pay out of pocket to retake the courses with money she did not have. Instead, Oregon’s Youth Experiencing Homelessness tuition and fee waiver covered the cost.
“That was the difference between me staying in school or not,” Cambridge said.
The tuition waiver, expanded by the Legislature in 2022, enables current or former homeless youth to pursue degrees at Oregon’s public universities and community colleges by waiving remaining tuition and mandatory fees after other grants and scholarships have been applied.
Since 2022, nearly 400 students have been approved for the waiver, according to Matt Rasmussen, manager of the Department of Human Services’ Youth Experiencing Homelessness Program.
Before accessing the waiver, students must have completed the FAFSA or the Oregon Student Aid Application. Colleges then waive whatever tuition and mandatory fees remain after those aid sources have been exhausted for students who qualify for the waiver.
“It’s so important to give young people that feeling of hope, involvement, connection and being able to see a future for themselves,” Rasmussen said.
Filling a gap
Before 2022, Oregon already offered tuition waivers for students who had been in foster care. Advocates said young people who experienced homelessness often faced many of the same educational barriers without qualifying for similar support.
That changed with House Bill 4013.
Savina Zuniga, who experienced homelessness while growing up in Oregon, helped advocate for the legislation after seeing firsthand how housing instability made higher education difficult to access.
Zuniga had an unstable childhood, bouncing between different relatives’ and friends’ homes until 2016 when she and her grandmother were evicted from their Portland apartment after severe storm damage made it unlivable. Through her counselor, she was connected to resources and Host Homes, an Oregon program that places young people experiencing homelessness with licensed volunteer host families. That support enabled Zuniga to graduate high school a year early.
She considered attending college right out of high school but while filling out her FAFSA, she became discouraged. The federal student financial aid form included additional scholarships and resources for youth who have been through the foster care system.
“I knew that I couldn’t check the box. I had to say ‘no’ even though I felt like it was unfair, because I went through a lot of the same things they went through,” Zuniga said.
House Bill 4013 expanded Oregon’s existing tuition waiver to include young people, like Zuniga, who had experienced homelessness, recognizing that many faced similar financial and education obstacles as foster youth.
Zuniga said the experience lobbying for the waiver motivated her to pursue political science at the University of Nevada, Reno, seven years after she graduated high school. Zuniga is currently attending college thanks to the Nevada System of Higher Education’s Native American Fee Waiver, which covers mandatory fees for eligible students attending the state’s public colleges and universities.
Zuniga said she is extremely proud of Oregon’s waiver program, but would like to see it expanded further. Nevada’s waiver, unlike Oregon’s, is applied before other external grants and funding. That means students in Nevada can use other scholarships they qualify for to cover additional costs associated with attending college beyond tuition and fees.
Oregon’s current rules make “it difficult for unhoused or formerly unhoused young people to pay rent and go to school and get a job and recover from those experiences they may have recently had or might still be going through,” Zuniga said.
Beyond visible homelessness
For Cambridge, the waiver is only one part of a much longer journey.
During her childhood, she said living with her mother became increasingly turbulent. She spent her middle and high school years moving between friends’ houses, relying on families willing to let her stay for weeks or months at a time.
“My best friend’s family at the time let me stay for a while and then my boyfriend’s family at the time also let me stay, and I was on and off between their houses for quite a while,” Cambridge said. “I’m so grateful for them, but at the end of the day, these are people with their own families and responsibilities.”
By her junior year of high school, she had exhausted nearly every option.
“I called (my school counselor) and I said, ‘Hey, I always know what to do. I always figure things out, but right now I don’t know. I have no idea.’” Cambridge said. “I can picture myself in tears on the phone in my best friend’s house feeling so incredibly lost, distraught, scared.”
Her counselor connected her with Host Homes and the state’s Youth Experiencing Homelessness Program.
It is difficult to determine how many Oregon children are homeless in part because many avoid sleeping on the street by couch surfing, sleeping in cars or paying for motels or weekly rentals. Oregon has anywhere from about 2,600 homeless children, according to a biannual federally mandated count, to nearly 10 times that many – about 23,700, according to the state Department of Education. No matter the source, Oregon has among the highest rates of homeless children in the country.
Cambridge said broadening the tuition waiver to include homeless youth validated experiences that often go unseen.
“This change in terminology, allowing for the tuition fee waiver to apply to previously or currently homeless youth, is opening so many doors and so many options and really bringing back that feeling of worthiness to a lot of people,” Cambridge said.
Looking ahead
Jessica Tucker, a case manager at Hearts with a Mission, a Medford-based nonprofit organization that provides emergency shelter and support services for at-risk children, said housing instability often forces young people to prioritize survival over education.
A former homeless youth herself, the 25-year-old understands the education struggle all too well. Alongside her work with Hearts with a Mission, Tucker is a part-time student at Rogue Community College who was able to access the tuition waiver to support her education. She got her GED at 20 after dropping out of high school to support herself.
“They’re just worried about today and tomorrow; they don’t look a week ahead, a month ahead, a year ahead, five years ahead,” said Tucker about young people experiencing homelessness.
Rasmussen said the state’s Youth Experiencing Homelessness Program aims to help students step out of that survival mode.
“To be able to see, in a variety of our initiatives, tuition and fee waivers, direct cash work, being able to breathe and think about the future for maybe the first time ever really changes a lot of young people’s trajectories and hopes and desires,” Rasmussen said.
A semester from graduation, Cambridge is reflecting on everything it took for her to get here.
“I’ve been self-supported since I was a kid. I paid for all of my own meals, sports, field trips — things you don’t think kids are usually supposed to pay for on their own, all out of my own pocket,” Cambridge said.
At 16, she seriously considered leaving high school to work full-time so she could afford somewhere to live.
Now, she is preparing for a future she once couldn’t imagine.
“It’s one thing to not be stressed about where you’re eating tomorrow, how you’re going to get to school or if you’re going to have to get a GED instead,” Cambridge said. “It’s another thing to be able to plan for your future success and goals.”
©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
