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After two years of inactivity, Isle of Wight County’s Mission of Hope homeless shelter has dissolved.

From the nonprofit organization’s creation in 2007 through 2020, participating churches would take turns providing temporary shelter for the county’s homeless people during the winter months. When churches were ordered to shutter during the pandemic’s early days, Mission of Hope’s 2020 season came to an abrupt end.

Mission of Hope remained closed in 2021 amid a fall resurgence of COVID-19 cases spurred by the then-dominant Delta variant. The shelter’s board of directors, as of last year, deemed the risk too great given that many congregants who had volunteered with Mission of Hope in pre-pandemic years were senior citizens at greater risk of infection.

Due to the past two years of inactivity, “our executive board of directors found it necessary to dissolve our Mission of Hope Emergency Shelter,” said board President Barbara Wiggins. “We will not be opening with any means to house any homeless this year.”

“From time to time as a community we will still do what we can to be able to assist those in need,” Wiggins said, noting the nonprofit may still call on churches as needs arise, “but not to house.”

Wiggins’ other nonprofit, Providential Credit Care Management Inc., remains active in Smithfield and Isle of Wight County. The nonprofit operates as what Wiggins refers to as a “one-stop-shop” for assisting low-income and homeless families with permanent housing, financial literacy, credit repair and achieving first-time homeownership.

PCCMI operates out of 403 Grace St., Suite D, in Smithfield and can be reached at 757-357-1763, vennih@aol.com or pccminc@aol.com.

Those experiencing homelessness in Isle of WIght or elsewhere in Hampton Roads can also call the regional housing crisis hotline at 757-587-4202.