PORT TOWNSEND — Olympic Community Action Programs executive director Holly Morgan said the organization’s direct services were almost $3.4 million in Clallam and Jefferson counties last year.
Morgan’s presentation to the Board of Jefferson County Commissioners on Tuesday included weatherization improvements on 28 homes.
“We help households that are income eligible and otherwise eligible with making improvements and upgrades to their homes to make them more energy efficient over the long run,” Morgan said. “Sometimes this is adding insulation, sometimes it’s replacing a furnace.”
In addition to income eligibility, state funders set guidelines for which homes can see the investments, Morgan said.
“We can’t put $50,000 worth of work into a mobile home that has a value of $10,000,” said. “We have to work within the guidelines that the state mandates.”
OlyCAP also provided energy and utility assistance to 2,633 people, Morgan said. The organization provided energy-efficient air conditioners to almost 500 people, she added.
OlyCAP paid $698,000 in rental assistance, supporting 223 individuals, and $23,000 went toward emergency support, which includes immediate needs like temporary housing and groceries, Morgan said.
The housing program supported 13 youth in transitioning from homelessness to housing stability through transitional housing, and eight more youth who had not previously accessed services were helped in finding housing, Morgan said.
An individual donated enough money for OlyCAP to provide $500 in guaranteed monthly income to 21 families last year, Morgan said. The program’s second year will end at the end of June, but Morgan said the donor may fund the program again.
“We’re in discussions with him now on whether he wants to do it again,” Morgan said. “It’s something that’s very important to him philanthropically and something that’s important to our community action community as a whole. We are trying to advocate for programs like this to go national.”
OlyCAP had 205 children enrolled in early childhood services.
Morgan said OlyCAP provided over 4,100 congregate meals for seniors in 2024. Also, the organization implemented a music therapy program in Port Angeles for seniors with degenerative brain conditions, she said.
“It’s really fantastic,” said county commissioner Greg Brotherton, who serves on OlyCAP’s board. “I’ve seen women and men with severe dementia struggling to have conversations, then they get in front of the piano and they’re playing show tunes. They’re reliving their best days.”
OlyCAP is considering replicating the program in Jefferson County, Morgan said.
Also in 2024, OlyCAP spent almost $136,000 across 10 categories of service as a part of the Peninsula Home Fund, according to the presentation. Car repair expenses was the largest category with $58,762 spent in support of 127 individuals.
Morgan also presented OlyCAP’s 2025 draft budget, adding it comes with caveats.
The budget totals were taken and divided by 12, reverse engineering for monthly budgeting, County Administrator Mark McCauley said.
“I know that it’s not going to work that way,” Morgan said. “We’re not ever going to come to a place where we bill $645,000 a month to our contracts every single month. There’s going to be an ebb and flow to that process, but I don’t yet know what that is.”
The draft budget is a work in progress, Morgan said.
In 2024, OlyCAP spent more than $5 million on staffing, the nonprofit’s largest expense, Morgan said.
“Our product at OlyCAP are human beings, right? So our service providers are our product,” Morgan said. “That is how we serve the community in many ways.”
Morgan said sometimes people see the high number and question if the organization is lining its pockets. She said the services simply would not be accomplished if it were not for the employees paid to carry them out.
OlyCAP is working on a dashboard to provide outside partners with more up-to-date and transparent numbers on its revenue and expenses, Morgan said.
County commissioner Heather Dudley-Nollette asked if OlyCAP would be providing information on the number of employees employed by the organization.
“That salaries number is really remarkable when you add salaries to operations then look at the direct service dollars,” Dudley-Nollette said. “I think that’s something that people really do need to understand.”
More than $2 million is going to operations and $508,146 spent in pass-through grants.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
