The face of homelessness in Minnesota is changing, and a Minnetonka-based organization is hitting the airwaves to bring awareness to the cause.

On Friday, the second episode of The Caring Effect’s radio show “Welcoming the Stranger,” took on the issue of the rising number of homeless youth in cities across the country.

“When I learned that on any given night in Minnesota, there are 550 to 650 teens out there without a permanent shelter, it broke my heart,” said host and founder of The Caring Effect, Beth Ulrich, during Friday’s 50-minute radio show. “Having four daughters, I can’t imagine not having them with us or not having a place to sleep at night.”

Mother of three and researcher for The Caring Effect, Monica Gaffey, said homeless youth aren't the average sterotype people have in their head.

“They aren’t always lying on a park bench covered with newspapers,” said Gaffey. “Often times they are couch-hopping, which means they are sleeping on couches at friends' houses. When that home can't house them any longer, they try to find a new house and new couch to sleep on.”

Gaffey said homeless youth are ill-prepared to face adult responsibilities of finding affordable housing, food and health care.

“It actually begins with things I never thought about, like getting a copy of your birth certificate and social security card to get a job or receive aid,” said Gaffey. “Often when leaving home, these kids don't grab these documents or even have them at home."

"We’ve heard stories of the parents of these youth had already used their kids social security numbers and birth certificates to create false identities for the parents and have wrecked the kids’ credit.”

Although the number of homeless youth in Minnesota on any given night is in the hundreds, Gaffey admits that it's hard to assess the number in Minnetonka.

"The difficulty in assessing our homeless youth is that they just want to blend in," said Gaffey. "They want to dress the same as kids their age, and they don't often tell others they are homeless."

The Caring Effect's volunteers produce their own monthly show on Next Stage Online Radio, and Gaffey said they hope to start doing bi-monthly broadcasts.