Prime Minister Kevin Rudd unveiled the Federal Government's white paper on homelessness, The Road Home, at the weekend with a vow to halve homelessness by 2020 and spend $1.2 billion over four years on new housing and services.

Southern Youth and Family Services CEO Narelle Clay expects at least $40 million of the outlay will be allocated to NSW.

She is hoping a good portion of this will find its way to the South Coast to be spent on accommodation support programs, shelters, crisis refuges and supported services.

Beds and services for young people, people with mental illness and women and children escaping domestic violence should be priorities, she said.

"This is the first very large investment in homelessness since 1985," she said.

"We should be able to increase the supported accommodation beds in this area so that people aren't turned away."

Around 1530 people are homeless each night in the Illawarra.

Southern Youth and Family Services sees more than 1500 homeless or at-risk young people each year, but is only able to accommodate about 190 of them.

"The South Coast has a significant problem," Ms Clay said.

"It's no worse than anywhere else, but there are other issues here - high youth unemployment, we need more infrastructure, including transport, to assist people and we have terribly long waiting lists for public or community housing."

Topping the service's wish-list is funding for its "foyer" model, which provides accommodation, employment and education support to young people from under the one roof.

The initiative was one of 10 innovative projects held up for praise in the Government's homelessness green paper earlier this year.

But it has struggled to survive on donations and sponsorship for the past 18 months after government funding dried up.

"The Illawarra was a leader in developing the foyer model," Ms Clay said.

"It got evaluated as being highly successful and yet there was no ongoing funding stream for it."

Ms Clay, a commissioner on last year's Independent Inquiry into Youth Homelessness, is confident the foyer project will qualify for funding from Canberra.