York region organization wants your extra bedrooms for homeless youth

A York region organization that works with homeless and at-risk youth is asking for households with extra bedrooms to consider offering them to young people with nowhere to sleep.

"We believe that there are 300 homeless youth walking around York region at any time," Mark Zeidenberg, chair of the board of 360 Kids, said Monday.

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"Many of these kids are invisible. They couch surf, they stay at a friend's house for a couple of days, a couple of weeks, until they're thrown out of there, go to the next place, and become more and more desperate," he told Metro Morning.

360 Kids is trying to change that with a new program called Nightstop.

Zeidenberg said the program starts by carefully screening young people and their potential hosts, before matching them up on a night-by-night basis. Only low-risk youth, with no criminal record or history of violence, are put in the program.

"We can't keep building shelters," he said. "Here's a great solution that takes advantage not only of existing bedrooms… but it can also create longer-term relationships that can lead to great mentoring."

Zeidenberg said he plans to open his home as well to homeless young people in the hopes of providing a good example to his own children. 

"If we want to be a good role model for them, it's actions. Its deeds that speak," he said. 

Prospective hosts are asked to provide a bedroom and three meals to the young people who stay with them.

People who are interested in participating in the Nightstop program can find more information here.