The Gloucester United Emergency Shelter Team (GUEST) is seeking churches or civic organizations with buildings to become overnight host sites for the local homeless population through the winter months.
“It’s definitely been a challenge to come out of COVID,” said Amanda Adams, vice chair of the GUEST Board.
During the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, GUEST received federal grants that allowed it to provide motel vouchers for the homeless. That program ended two years ago and GUEST has had difficulty finding enough winter host sites since.
Last winter, GUEST adopted a hybrid model of host sites and motel vouchers since not enough churches or civic organizations volunteered to be host sites.
“It really exhausted our funds,” said Adams.
From Dec. 2 through the last week of March, GUEST is in need of host sites to provide shelter from 6 p.m. until 7 o’clock the next morning each day. A site can only serve as a homeless shelter for seven consecutive days per Gloucester County code.
Churches...