Young people who don't have a bed, or who don't want to go home, are gravitating to the shopping centre and other public places to ask friends or strangers if they can stay the night on their couch or in their garage.

"Last week I spoke to three kids who were sleeping in cars," Mr Nixon said. "They don't sleep in squats or on the streets. They want somewhere they feel relatively safe."

Mr Nixon said many of these youngsters are still enrolled at school and authorities were unaware of their circumstances.

There were no vacancies in the City of Frankston for transitional or emergency housing and the only options were private rentals or boarding houses that were beyond the reach of most young people in these cash-strapped circumstances, he said.

"Most people don't know about the cultural issues at Frankston. They think people here are all driving around in Commodores and Fords. They think homelessness is only happening in places like the northern and western suburbs."

Mr Nixon, 56, has been an outreach/youth worker around Melbourne for 35 years. He has been working in Frankston for six months, employed through Open Family Australia's Frankston community program.

In 2008, Open Family was approached by a committee of Frankston business owners to set up a program to combat the rise in youth homelessness, crime, alcohol and drug-related abuse in the region.

Open Family responded by employing Mr Nixon, whose role is to give street kids advice and referrals to help them reconnect with the community.

"Most of them don't know there are agencies like Centrelink's Local Connections that can help them."

Down-to-earth, looking like a cross between Les Twentyman and Willie Nelson, he works on the streets, talking to people at the usual hang-outs such as Young Street. "You don't get anything done sitting in an office."

After initially being treated with suspicion and distrust, Mr Nixon has built a rapport with the young people and many feel safe confiding in him.

He said Frankston Council's trial introduction of roving private security guards (City Safe Officers) is seen by the young people in Young Street as intimidatory. "The council should be looking at why youths are on the street in the first place. This only results in scaring them to non-patrolled and potentially more dangerous places."

Frankston Council told the Weekly it had recognised this issue and instructed the guards to be more friendly and less stern looking.