AcademyStay

06/03/2026

The system shouldn't require a young adult to lose their housing before they can get help keeping it.
We support the HOME for Foster Youth Act, introduced this week in Congress. This bipartisan bill removes the requirement that young adults transitioning from foster care must already be homeless to qualify for Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) housing vouchers. It shifts federal policy from crisis response to prevention.
AcademySTAY was built on the belief that stability shouldn't be a reward for surviving instability. This bill reflects that same logic.

05/29/2026

Sacramento counted 7,458 people without stable housing this year. That's 13% more than last year.
Here's the number we want you to hold onto: shelter and transitional housing use is up 22%.
More of our neighbors are getting indoors. More of them are getting a door that locks, a bed that's theirs, and a person who knows their name. That's not nothing. That's the whole game.
AcademySTAY exists in that 22%. Every student we house is one more person who isn't in the 13%. The math is brutal in its simplicity.
If you've ever wondered whether your giving matters in a problem this big, this is your answer. The door costs money to keep open. Help us keep ours open.
Donate: academystay.org/donate

05/28/2026

California just opened a $3,000 trust account for every eligible young adult who spent time in foster care. It's called the HOPE Program, and the application window is open now.
Here's the catch: a state benefit only matters if the people who qualify actually know it exists and have someone to help them claim it.
If you know a young adult who aged out of California foster care, send them this link: https://hopeaccount.ca.gov/
Share this post. Someone in your network knows someone who qualifies.

Funds for young people who lost a parent or caregiver to COVID or received foster care: HOPE Program.

05/27/2026

Last night, Dr. Flo Cofer came to AcademySTAY and talked with our students about what civic engagement actually looks like -- and what it has to do with their lives. These are young adults who've had their voices minimized. Dr. Cofer showed up to say otherwise. We're grateful she made the time. And if you know these faces, you know they were paying attention.
Flo Cofer for Supervisor 2026

05/27/2026

The day a young adult ages out of foster care, the federal government has spent thousands on their case. What it hasn't paid for: the first month's rent. The security deposit. The hundred bucks to turn the lights on.
That's the gap programs like AcademySTAY have been covering with donor dollars for years.
Last week, the U.S. House passed a package of six bipartisan foster care bills that finally makes federal Chafee funds explicitly cover those costs, removes the cap that's been squeezing them, and aligns them with federal housing vouchers. Security deposits. Utility connections. Moving expenses. The exact dollars that stand between a young adult and an apartment they can actually live in.
It's the first comprehensive update to the federal foster care transition program since 1999. It now heads to the Senate.
If you've ever wondered what a "systemic gap" actually looks like in real life, it's an 18-year-old sitting on the porch of an apartment they can't enter because their security deposit hasn't cleared. This package closes that gap.
Call your senators. Ask them to pass the Fostering the Future Act.
Find your senators: senate.gov/senators
Quick-dial script: 5calls.org

Presented to enlighten, amuse, and inform, our new Senate history blog explores the forces, events, and personalities that have shaped the modern Senate.

05/26/2026

Rome came to Sacramento from Kern County.
He had two young kids, a lot of ambition, and no plan yet for how to make it work.
He enrolled in Build Strong Academy's construction program. He took an opening at AcademySTAY.
"I want my baby to see me working, to know I didn't give up," he said. "This is my fresh start. For me and for her."
He graduated. He's still building.

05/21/2026

May is Foster Care Awareness Month.
In California, foster care ends on a birthday. No safety net. No family home to return to. Just a date on a calendar and whatever they've managed to build before it arrives.
We've been doing this work since October 2024. We've seen so many graduation ceremonies we've lost count. Scholarship awards. Union apprenticeships. Certificates. Parties that spill into the garden.
What they needed was a place that holds while they build.
This month, we wrote about what we've seen.

05/21/2026

AcademySTAY is proud to stand with End Poverty in California - Jenny and some of our students at the CA capitol in Sacramento recently.

05/08/2026

YOU OPENED 1,046 DOORS LAST NIGHT.
When the clock hit midnight on Big Day of Giving, AcademySTAY had raised:
$52,306
209% of our $25,000 goal
1,046 safe nights of housing

That's not a number. That's 1,046 stable mornings. Semesters of finals studied at someone's own kitchen table. A decade-defining pivot for students who aged out of foster care into a system that often closes doors. You opened them instead.

Special thanks to our Board Chair Jason France, whose matching commitment doubled every dollar you gave. Thanks to Sacramento Region Community Foundation, GivingEdge, and our partners at Sacramento CASA. Thanks everyone who visited our events yesterday and especially to our volunteers and students for all the support to make BDOG so successful.

11,900+ safe nights of housing since October 2024.
Open. More. Doors.