Supported Lodgings provides a stable home for young people.

Our History

We started with a simple belief: no young person should face homelessness alone.

In 1994, a group of parents in York heard about the first Nightstop project in Leeds. It made them ask a powerful question:

“If this were our child, would we want them to have nowhere safe to go?”

The answer was no. So they took action.

York Nightstop was created to give young people in crisis a safe place to stay. In March 1996, the organisation was incorporated, and just one month later became a registered charity.

  • From the very beginning, people opened their homes to help. In that first year, volunteer hosts provided 39 nights of emergency accommodation to young people who would otherwise have faced homelessness.

    Since then, we have grown significantly - reaching more communities, offering more services, and supporting more young people at some of the most difficult moments in their lives.

    In 2009, we became Safe and Sound Homes (SASH), reflecting the wider support we provide today.

    But our purpose hasn’t changed.

    We are here to prevent youth homelessness and to help young people move forward. That means more than a safe place to stay—it means support, stability, and the opportunity to build an independent future.

    Every day, we work alongside young people to help them find a way forward - powered by a network of dedicated hosts who offer their homes, their time, and their belief in what’s possible.

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What to expect

Our volunteer hosts offer a safe place to stay for the night in their own home. Young people have their own room, along with essentials like a hot meal, access to a shower and the opportunity to wash clothes.

Hosts are there to offer a warm welcome and a listening ear. How much a young person chooses to engage is always up to them.

How it works

Young people are referred to Nightstop by local authorities and partner agencies. Before any placement is made, we carry out thorough checks, including Police National Computer (PNC) checks and risk assessments, to ensure placements are safe for both young people and hosts.

Where possible, we place young people in their local area so they can continue with education, training, or work. Maintaining stability at this time is key to preventing homelessness from escalating.

We arrange travel to and from placements and make sure each young person has all the information they need to get there safely.

Ongoing support

Every young person and host has access to our emergency phone line, available 24 hours a day. We also check in to make sure everything is going smoothly and that everyone feels safe and supported.

After each stay, the young person returns to their referring agency, and we continue to work together to find a longer-term solution.

This might include returning home, moving into supported lodgings, accessing a hostel, or securing independent or local authority housing.

We support young people night by night until they have somewhere safe and stable to stay.

Nightstop provides safe, emergency accommodation for young people who have nowhere safe to stay We can arrange a placement quickly, often within just a few hours.