New refuge for temporarily homeless teens opens in Kemptville, Ont.

It's just a single bed in a plain bachelor apartment in Kemptville, Ont., but for young people in the small town south of Ottawa, it's a refuge where there wasn't one before.

The charity group Connect Youth Inc. is running the program, which gives young people 16 to 21 years of age emergency and transitional housing.

The new single bed in Kemptville, which opens Monday, joins another single unit in the community of Prescott, Ont., that's been open since 2014.

Last year that apartment sheltered 13 people after 63 referrals from across Leeds and Grenville United Counties, according to Elizabeth Langlois, Connect Youth's program co-ordinator.

Now, the group is trying to give more people access.

'Spread it out'

"We just kind of wanted to spread it out a little bit. It's such a large county that we just wanted to make sure ... that we just made it a little bit more accessible," she told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning on Monday before a ribbon-cutting in Kemptville.

Some youths end up at the shelter after years of family breakdowns, while others living independently wind up needing help after being evicted. Everyone's situation is unique, Langlois said. 

To get access to the shelter, youths need to agree to meet with a case worker on a regular basis to help them find where they'll live next and to build up life skills. Connect Youth can also refer people to other local services they may need to find employment, food or mental health services, for example.

The group could open a third unit elsewhere in the united counties, perhaps within five years, if there's demand.

"If the referrals are coming in and the need is there, it's definitely something we would look at in the future," Langlois said.