A tidal wave of generosity has swept in from Age readers after the publication of the plight of a young homeless woman featured on Wednesday.

Alicia (not her real name) is trying to complete Year 11 while living under a bridge in Melbourne.

Since the story was published, the homeless service assisting Alicia has received hundreds of offers of help, including a single anonymous donation of $10,000.

Youth Projects had to divide the correspondence up between staff in order to be able to email and call everyone back.

On Wednesday night donations were coming in at a rate of one every five minutes and by Thursday $19,000 had been donated.

One offer to emerge was a guaranteed university place (Alicia wants to be a criminologist).

The Age also received dozens of emails from those wanting to assist the 19-year-old rough sleeper, including housing offers and work experience at major law firms.

The story "Without a home but not without hope" has been read almost 160,000 times and shared more than 12,000 times on Facebook.

Alicia said she was surprised by the response. "Just the support is overwhelming … and the fact that there are so many people out there that care," she said.

Youth Projects chair Melanie Raymond said the organisation would make sure all the donations sent to Alicia were given to her directly.

She said she was hopeful Alicia and her boyfriend would never have to return to sleeping under the bridge.

With the donated money, the couple will be able to temporarily book into a hotel, until proper housing is found.

Money will also be put aside to help with the ongoing costs of Alicia's education, allowing her to focus on study rather than her daily survival.

"You have big-hearted readers who are prepared to get behind an issue that is plaguing Melbourne," Ms Raymond said.

"Some people are saying they were almost in tears at the idea that someone will be facing so much hardship while finishing high school."

Last year the number of people seeking help from homeless services in Victoria rose to almost 100,000.

And in the first three months of this year, 660 young people visited Melbourne City Mission's CBD service. Of those, 65 per cent did not have anywhere to stay for the night, until they visited the drop-in centre.

If you want to make a donation to the young woman featured in the story, supermarket vouchers are the most practical. Contact Youth Projects direct at admin@youthprojects.org.au

You can also make a cash donation to Youth Projects to assist all their clients.