OlyCAP searches for new director amid a changing landscape
By Derek Firenze
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The Olympic Community Action Program expanded its Port Townsend office during peak pandemic funding. The additional space in the McPherson Building now houses OlyCAP’s youth housing program which has supported approximately 35 youths since October 2023. Beacon photo by Derek Firenze [/caption]
A new chapter is unfolding in the history of the Olympic Community Action Program.
Executive director Cherish Cronmiller stepped down in February after a turbulent four-years in the position, and a new permanent director has yet to be found.
Cromiller joined the organization in February 2020, just before the pandemic changed everything. She rode out a surge in revenues during the worst years of lockdown, but with that COVID funding now gone, so is she.
Two months after Cronmiller’s departure, Interim Executive Director Tammy Lidster is still figuring out what happened. Lidster took the reins immediately after Cronmiller left, and no official reason was given for her departure.
While Lidster is known for her kind demeanor, her position as Early Childhood Services Director did not involve much interaction with other services within the organization.
“Some things I might not have the knowledge of yet because I’m still digging through and trying to piece things together,” Lidster said. “My life has revolved around the Early Childhood Services Division, so that’s been my focus.”
She went on to list the various other departments she’s currently in charge of, including housing, shelters, and senior nutrition, with which she has no experience. Despite being aware that the job is only temporary, Lidster said she’s “trying to wrap my head around all the different divisions and get that knowledge that I haven’t had to worry about in the past.”
The nonprofit has had to navigate a number of other staff changes, including the transfer of Robin Pangborn, the previous shelter manager for the Caswell-Brown Village on Mill Road and the Jefferson County Emergency Shelter at the American Legion Hall.
“[Pangborn is] out of the housing division, and she now works in the director role for our Retired Senior Volunteer Program,” Lidster said.
Pangborn’s transfer happened just a few months before Cronmiller’s departure. Funding for the Legion shelter then became something of a scramble over the last few months, only to have OlyCAP announce an end to its contract for that shelter at the end of June.
Housing Director Kathy Morgan, who has been stepping in to help coordinate the shelters in Pangborn’s absence, is also set to leave the organization in a few months as she fully steps in the role of executive director of the Olympic Housing Trust.
“We have gone through a big shift in the agency,” Lidster said.
“We also do not have a fiscal director in place,” she added. “We do have some key positions that are vacant, so we are on the search and recruiting.”
At the same time as these staff shifts and revenue losses, inflation has further compounded problems. Last summer, Cronmiller announced a project was fully funded to break ground on an emergency shelter and permanent supportive housing complex adjacent to Caswell-Brown. At the time, she said it would be completed in the summer of 2024, but work has yet to begin.
“Caswell Brown Village did get the $5 million from commerce, and that is waiting to be used,” Lidster said regarding the project. “Once those initial funds were awarded, OlyCAP chose a general contractor, then the job went out to bid, inflation hit, and now we have a gap.”
On top of inflation, another hoped-for grant fell through. “The County applied for a [Connecting Housing to Infrastructure] grant for off-site utilities coming into the project but did not get awarded, which also increased the gap to $2.5 million,” Lidster said.
Those aren’t the only changes happening out on Mill Road.
Becky Forrester lives in Caswell-Brown and has worked as the representative for its inhabitants for the last year. She said that when she arrived a year ago, “there were four full-time OlyCAP employees on site, but now there’s only one.” She added that she’ll also be ending her tenure as representative as of May 1 to focus on her own future. People staying at Caswell-Brown are only allowed two years on the property, and she wants to spend the next year saving up to find housing.
Despite all of these difficulties, Forrester said, “I’m proud of the work I’ve done. I’m leaving this place better than it was.” Some of the improvements she’s helped to bring include a fenced-in area for dogs and a greater voice for residents regarding the encampment’s rules. The biggest change on that front, she said, is that residents will be allowed overnight guests, which was previously restricted entirely.
When exactly these rule changes will take effect, however, is still being decided.
“With Kathy Morgan leaving, the decision was made to wait for review by the new housing director so that they can set up a process with the residents,” said OlyCAP Board Vice Chair Amy Howard. “There isn’t a lot of trust there right now, and I’m hoping that can change. Tammy is trying to hold a line right now as the interim while OlyCAP hires for an Executive Director, a CFO [Chief Financial Officer], and an almost entirely new housing team.”
The organization hopes to find a permanent executive director soon so that it can begin solving all these issues. To that end, Executive Firm Herd Freed Hartz has been hired to aid that search.
“We’re hoping we’ll have the first round of candidates within the first three months, and we just started the search,” Lidster said. With difficult and necessary tasks ahead, hopefully, the right people are easy to find.
