‘Yes, In God\u2019s Backyard’ bill part of proposed affordable housing solution<\/a><\/p>\nGraduation, homemade desserts and a culinary career in the making are what 20-year-old Lexi Allison does have. But it\u2019s what she\u2019s had to face after aging out of foster care that\u2019s always top of mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cHomelessness, unemployment, a mental battle, jail. Like I know a lot of people just struggling and constantly going to jail. That\u2019s another thing that not having somewhere stable can cause,\u201d Allison said. \u201cOne thing I realized when I didn\u2019t have nowhere to go it was either hard to keep a job, it\u2019s hard to think about your next step when you\u2019re not even in the place you want to be, or be in a place you want to live in or feel comfortable at.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the kind of information Christopher Warren with the nonprofit, Spring Zone St. Pete, said they took into account when they came up with a plan to help solve the housing issue for young people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Yes in God\u2019s Backyard house bill that passed has been a tremendous blessing in this effort. The ability for us to be able to provide housing, but provide housing on church property, is amazing. It\u2019s essential to success because what we need is community,\u201d Warren said. \u201cWhen it\u2019s fully developed, we\u2019ve got ten units with two young people in each unit. They each have their own room, which was something I wanted to make sure they had, because in the foster system they can be three, four, five \u2014 sometimes six to a room.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said each unit will be equipped with the comforts of home and a house of worship on the same property.<\/p>\n
Mt. Zion Primitive Baptist Church Senior Pastor G. Gregg Murray said his church is excited about leasing their land for this housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere at Mt. Zion, we want to make sure that whatever we do with our land, we be about ministry,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n
At Mt. Zion Primitive Baptist in St. Pete, Murray said their focus is on ministry that makes a difference in the lives of their members and members of a community that\u2019s often forgotten.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor foster children who have aged out of the program between the ages of 18 to 23, and we know that\u2019s a time they get displaced and somehow, they disappear into the community, they\u2019re no longer getting services,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Pastor Murray is also a social worker. And for his wife, Pauline, working with foster children is part of her life\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking with foster children for pretty much all my life and supervisor of a foster care program here in Pinellas County,\u201d Pauline said. \u201cWhen you get a child that\u2019s aging out of foster care and coming into an independent living program, they need a lot of wrap-around services. They need a lot of love and attention \u2014 you\u2019re their parent. And the same thing you would do with your children, you do with those children.\u201d<\/p>\n
A handful of other churches have also signed on to help with the affordable housing crisis hitting this vulnerable population. It\u2019s something Allison says she can only be thankful for.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, that\u2019s all God\u2019s work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The project is expected to be completed within the next two years. Some of those young people who will live in the units will also get a chance to help with the building and construction process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 “Yes, in God\u2019s backyard.” That was the push for a bill that recently went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1571,21948,767,16022,4318,3140,274,770,1644,2200,2287,115,596,4368,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,2032,835],"class_list":["post-30222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-affordable-housing","tag-app-affordable-housing","tag-app-community","tag-app-housing","tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-housing","tag-instagram-bn9","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-saundra-weathers","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}