Many staff at Ozone House were college "dropouts" who recognized the need to establish trust between their clients, and in keeping with the times and lack of funds, provided physical spaces that were "non-institutional" and casual. As the runaway crisis drew larger legal attention, issues arose concerning underage runaways and their parents. One of its earliest approaches was a three-tiered system for housing youth summarized as ""crashing, fostering," and "moling";" Each targeted a specific situation and age of the youth. "Crashing" involved youths over age 17 who did not need parental consent and could be housed by listed individuals or families in the area. "Fostering" was used in conjunction with Catholic Social Services of Michigan in order to circumvent state-licensing issues and arrangeded for youth to live in state-licensed foster homes. Many of these new foster homes offered alternatives to traditional "foster parents" by accepting young homosexuals, the "streetwise" and sexually active. If such a foster home was available, the system utilized parental consent and asked for a voluntary small financial contribution to assist with the child's living expenses. The situation was unique because it allowed the youth to initiate hir services, rather than the parents or the state. The final strategy, "moling," recognized situations in which "a young person cannot get parental permission for Foster Care, the young person refuses to contact his/her parents, is an institutional runaway, or in other special circumstances." This third system allowed an underage youth to be sheltered regardless of the legal policies at the time. Counselors would ask a series of questions to determine if moling was the last (and most appropriate) option and if the actions could be justified pending legal action. "Moling" was recognized as a risky alternative requiring caution and staff were adamant that they be used solely for crisis situations rather than casual escapes from a youth's personal or familial problems. Staff viewed the third option as maintaining solidarity with the radical political changes in youth advocacy. While helping to lead national advocacy to expand youth legal rights, Ozone House became the second agency of its kind to receive federal funding to address the growing needs of youth. This led to expanded services, such a free counseling, family intervention, and individual youth advocacy. By the mid-1970s, Ozone House began recognizing that the problems youth faced were rapidly changing. Among these were rising incidence rates of child abuse, substance abuse problems within families, poverty, and parental imprisonment. Likewise, runaways who left home to explore counter culture on their own were becoming replaced by youth who had been thrown out of their homes ("throwaways") and youth who had aged out of the foster care system and found themselves with nowhere to go.