Currently, only four emergency beds are available in Duluth for youth ages fourteen to seventeen.

This could all change if Life House receives even one of the two grants they've filed from the U.S Department of Health and Human Services.

Any youth who does not have access to basic needs are considered to be at–risk. Life House stands to help these kids by providing food, shelter and healthcare, as well as services in education and employment.

With the help of the grants, Life House would be better able to accommodate the 50 to 70 kids they see each day.

Life House Development Coordinator, Jeff Woolverton said money from the grants will help aide in street out-reach initiatives, but will especially help in providing emergency housing.

"That's really what it's all about," Woolverton said. "It's getting the kids off the streets and into a safe place where they can address the issues they need to essentially become positive adults."

The grants will be announced September 30th of this year.

(content in italics rewritten and posted to the Northland NewsCenter's website by Jennifer Walch, July 21, 2010)