The field at TD Place has been transformed into a tent city as more than 600 people take part in a fundraising challenge.
The Sleep Out for Youth Challenge benefits Ottawa's Youth Services Bureau, whose goal is to help get homeless youth off the street.
Tents started going up at TD Place at 6:00 p.m. Thursday.
Youth Services Bureau Foundation president Scott Lawrence tells CTV Ottawa the Sleep Out is their biggest fundraiser of the year.
“Right now, in Ottawa, despite the fact that we have such an affluent city, we have about a thousand youth who are homeless,” Lawrence says. “At the YSB, we have emergency shelters, transitional shelters, and programs that help support them, to get them off the streets and into homes and then on with their lives.
“Everybody here, all 600 people are pulling for those youth, to give them a second chance.”
The Sleep Out aims to raise $250,000. You can learn more, or donate, by clicking here.
With files from CTV Ottawa.