A Bradford district-based charity offering emergency accommodation to young homeless people could soon be going Stateside.

Nightstop UK's national office in Shipley has seen a surge of interest from abroad about setting up similar schemes as far away as America, Australia and Hungary.

And here at home, the charity has been awarded £85,000 from the Government to work with local authorities in the UK, helping them highlight and overcome gaps in new mandatory homelessness strategy plans.

Nightstop provides one-night stays for young homeless people in the homes of volunteers. The charity's UK manager, Greg Thomson, said: "All this is proof that we've got a model of work well worth looking at and taking on. There are definite possibilities of setting up similar schemes anywhere in the world that is Western European or English-speaking. We've had phone calls from America and Queensland in Australia, and a pastor from Hungary has been in touch."

Mr Thomson said in the past year, Nightstop had seen a shift in people's attitudes to Britain's homelessness problem.

"We seem to be moving away at last from the NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude and people are wanting to tackle the problem on their own patch," said Mr Thomson.

Last year more Nightstop schemes were set up, from the South West of Britain to the North Yorkshire coast. There are now more than 40 schemes affiliated to Nightstop UK.

"There's still a massive number of young people who need us. It's encouraging that more schemes are being set up to help them but it's sad they are needed," said Mr Thomson. "There's never likely to be a time when every young person will have a roof over their head. That's the realism we are confronted with and we have to make the best response we can."

From 2002 to 2003, 843 volunteers nationwide opened their homes to homeless youngsters as part of the scheme, giving up to 42,393 hours of their own time to the charity. There were 3,943 requests for help and 1,940 people were found suitable accommodation. The biggest age group calling for help is 16 to 18-year-olds.

The reasons for being homeless included family breakdowns, escaping violence, and racist attitudes. Support development worker Clare Dalton said the charity received more requests for beds than it could offer, and needed more volunteers. Anyone interested in becoming a Nightstop volunteer should ring (01274) 776888.