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Bill to help homeless, foster care youth with school housing clears first hurdle

March 31, 2025

The bill won bipartisan support with the House Careers & Workforce Subcommittee’s 16-0 vote Monday.

Tierra Lamore, who was in foster care from age 6 to 15, suddenly found herself homeless on her 18th birthday. The high school senior started couch surfing and worrying about where she would stay next.

Her story is a success story, not a tragedy. She ended up studying social work at Florida State University and graduated with honors.

On Monday, she testified in support of a new bill to help young people in similar circumstances get a place guaranteed to stay on college campuses.

HB 879, which cleared its first committee stop, would make young adults who were either homeless or went through the foster care system a top priority at residence halls on college campuses.

The bill is meant for those 28 years and younger and would also require Florida’s two-year public state colleges and universities to develop a priority system for assigning students to housing or work study programs. Students who aged out of foster care — who already get free tuition — would be placed as a top priority on the list.

The House Careers & Workforce Subcommittee passed the bill Monday with a 16-0 vote.

“You have great believers in you, and you’re not alone. So thank you for fighting for our most vulnerable here in the state of Florida. Godspeed,” Chair Berny Jacques, a Seminole Republican, told the bill’s sponsors and the youth advocates after the vote.

During the debate, Republican Rep. Michael Caruso asked if the young people who get free or discounted housing would be required to have minimal grade requirements at school.

“Those kids have been bounced from one home to another, and they are in college now, so we are doing everything in our power to keep them in school,” said Rep. Marie Woodson, a Hollywood Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill. “Just because one scored an ‘A,’ or one scored a ‘B’ doesn’t mean that we are not going to give them the housing that they need.”

Caruso followed up and asked what happens if students went as far as to fail their classes.

Rep. Alex Rizo, a Hialeah Republican and bill’s other co-sponsor, jumped in and said he believes students would need to be in good standing with the school to get the housing assistance

The bill won bipartisan support.

“You’re evening the odds,” said Republican Rep. Doug Bankson. “I’m proud to vote up on this bill.”

The bill is bound next for the Higher Education Budget Subcommittee or Education and Employment Committee.

Meanwhile, the 24-year-old Lamore, who is lobbying for the bill on behalf of the foster care advocacy group Florida Youth SHINE, told lawmakers what’s next for her. She is interning with the Department of Children and Families now.

“I’m also trying to figure out what my next goal is, but for now, I think it’s just to be proud of myself,” she said.





 
Gabrielle Russon is an award-winning journalist based in Orlando. She covered the business of theme parks for the Orlando Sentinel. Her previous newspaper stops include the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Toledo Blade, Kalamazoo Gazette and Elkhart Truth as well as an internship covering the nation’s capital for the Chicago Tribune. For fun, she runs marathons. She gets her training from chasing a toddler around. Contact her at gabriellerusson@gmail.com or on Twitter @GabrielleRusson .
 

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Alexia Nechayev

FYS Events & Meeting Chair
(Palm Beach/Miami)

Alexia Nechayev, from Miami, Florida, is a dedicated advocate for youth with lived experience in foster care and with homelessness. After being placed in foster care as a teenager, Alexia experienced firsthand the stigma surrounding the system, as well as the challenges of navigating a system that didn’t provide support for her to advocate for herself. This experience motivated her to create change, ensuring that other youth in care have the tools and resources she lacked.

She graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Florida International University, and upon graduation worked as a Hope Navigator with the Department of Children and Families which allowed her to assist clients through individualized care plans, further deepening her commitment to improving the lives of marginalized youth. Alexia is now applying to law schools with the goal of advancing her advocacy work through a legal career. As the Events and Meetings Chair for Florida Youth SHINE (FYS), she creates opportunities for foster and homeless youth to collaborate and push for meaningful change. She is also an active member of the Policy and Initiative Team for Florida Youth SHINE, where she helps create and shape policies that directly impact youth in foster care. One of her proudest accomplishments is helping to develop the Foster Care Bill of Rights, a law that she feels would have made a difference during her own time in care.

In addition to her work with FYS, Alexia serves on the Board of Directors for the parent organization of FYS, Florida’s Children First. In this role, she contributes to strategic decision-making while advocating for the rights and welfare of children statewide.

Every year, she travels to the state capitol to advocate for bills she and her peers have helped shape, including key pieces of legislation that benefit foster and homeless youth. However her advocacy extends beyond her state, as she represents Florida Youth SHINE at national conferences such as the National Leaders 4 Change Conference.

Through her internship with the National Foster Youth Institute, Alexia continues to refine her advocacy skills, preparing for a future where she can contribute meaningfully to both policymaking and the legal system. Guided by the belief that “the blue sky is always there,” she remains committed to ensuring that every youth in foster care has the power and support to advocate for themselves.

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