The opening chapter, which provides an historical perspective of emergency shelters, discusses the evolution of shelter programs and the refinement of shelter services for youth. The second chapter provides guidance for determining whether or not a community needs a shelter for youth. In addition to providing guidelines for the assessment, the chapter also discusses factors that bring homeless youth to the streets and the goals of shelter care. General topics in a chapter on how to start a shelter pertain to networking, incorporation, program models, funding, and the licensing of an agency. A chapter on shelter services addresses the structure of shelter services, group-care shelter facilities, host homes, the meeting of educational and vocational needs, and budget development. Other chapters focus on standards in the design and operation of the shelter program, service-delivery personnel, programming for individual youth, and program evaluation. Appended supplementary information, a 34-item bibliography, and 18 references