IT'S Warwick's secret shame, dozens of youths every night couch surfing - left essentially homeless - and the problem is much more widespread than first thought.

While the exact figures on youth homelessness on the Southern Downs are difficult to pinpoint, statistics from headspace Warwick estimate that as many as 10% of the service's 300 clients are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

An increase in reported youth homelessness has prompted the Southern Downs Regional Council to set up a working party to audit the issue.

The Southern Downs Youth Housing and Homelessness Working Party was established in October, led by the council's youth development officer and community services department.

A number of community organisations, including the Salvation Army, Red Cross, St Vincent De Paul - Corner Stone, headspace Warwick and CDS Stanthorpe, are involved in the working party.

According to the council's community services manager Sheila Stebbings, youth homelessness isn't a new issue in the region.

"Many efforts have been made in the past to respond to this issue," she said.

"The working party is aiming to combine community capacity with the current needs that have been identified to establish collaborative and relevant models and services."

The Southern Downs Youth Homelessness/Social Housing and Support Services audit will be valuable to understanding the issue, according to Mrs Stebbings.

"The audit will also enable a process for developing future projects/strategies across the full spectrum of service delivery including prevention, early intervention, crisis intervention, intervention and postvention," she said.

"The working party is currently compiling the audit report, including mapping the services across the service continuum, and identifying the gaps and needs for the regions young people."

The issue of youth homelessness is quite often hidden in Warwick, according to headspace Warwick manager Sophia McLucas.

"Most people think of someone living on the streets but a lot of what we see is youths with no permanent housing," she said.

"There's a lot of couch surfing - moving from house to house.

"It's very unstable.

"Quite often they find somewhere but it's not always safe.

"They do put themselves at risk."

A solution won't be an overnight fix, but Mrs McLucas is confident in the ability of the community to work together to find a way forward.

"Community services work well together in Warwick - it's so much better when we work together," she said.

"A number of options including temporary accommodation could be used but we don't just want a building.

"We want to make it safer.

"We're looking at options to build life skills for those people."

A final report from the audit is due in September.