For a second year in a row, the Gloucester United Emergency Shelter Team, or GUEST will not open its winter shelter. Instead, GUEST will continue to utilize the motel voucher program that started almost 18 months ago.

Prior to the pandemic, GUEST operated a yearly shelter during the colder months. The shelter would rotate locations between local churches. Due to health and safety concerns, COVID-19 put a stop to it.

GUEST then switched gears and found a new way to serve the homeless through its voucher program. GUEST executive director Rev. Kristie Askew said the voucher program will continue to be used until at least March of 2022.

The motel vouchers are grant funded through the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. The program has provided temporary living spaces for more than 160 people in Gloucester, Tappahannock and Westmoreland County. Askew said roughly 5 percent of the 160 people helped through the program were under the age of 18.

Askew said th...