SEQUIM — Tim Hockett, who is leaving Olympic Community Action Programs after six years as its executive director, delivered one of his final positive pitches for the agency that lifts up the region’s down-and-out.
But not before stating a grim truth up front.
“It’s a horrible environment right now for helping people,” Hockett told about 40 people attending Tuesday’s Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
The official departure date for Hockett, 61, will be Dec. 31, but his last day on the job will be Friday, as he takes a couple of weeks of vacation.
He leaves OlyCAP after 22 years with the agency that struggles to serve the needy young and old, the disabled and fixed- and low-income seniors on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Hockett earlier had cited stress as a major reason for his decision to leave the job paying $81,000 annually, some of that stress being the frustration of seeing greater need with declining resources.
Need high
On Tuesday, Hockett said that sadly, there are more people struggling on the Peninsula and fewer resources to help them.
He spoke of one Peninsula mother with two children living out of a car — the kids thinking they are camping while mom lives with the reality that she has nowhere else to go.
With situations like that on the Peninsula and dollars declining to meet the need, fewer of those in need are being helped.
With 225 employees today, far fewer than the more than 300-employee staff of five years ago, OlyCAP is struggling as well, he said.
Hockett said there are about 15,000 people in Clallam and Jefferson counties that fall below the poverty line, which translates to a family of four living on $10.66 an hour in pay.
Home Fund
On a more positive note, the Peninsula Daily News’ Home Fund, which is administered by OlyCAP, has grown from $7,000 in 1989 to $248,367 in 2010 under the fundraiser motto “a hand up, not a handout.”
Dollars donated to the Home Fund help Peninsula families meet serious needs.
Hockett has written many articles about real-life family and individual situations that generated donations to the Home Fund.
Then there are groups such as COAST and the American Legion in Port Townsend, which have helped OlyCAP and other volunteer groups and individuals remodel the basement of the Legion’s hall in downtown Port Townsend for the Jefferson County Emergency Winter Homeless Shelter.
COAST, an acronym for Community Outreach Association Shelter Team, is a network of Jefferson County and Port Townsend churches that co-founded the shelter with OlyCAP in 2005 at American Legion Post 26 at 209 Monroe St.
OlyCAP also is affiliated with such groups as the Boeing Bluebills in Port Ludlow, who help the poor and disabled through building wheelchair ramps and grab bars, and also distributed supplies from World Vision to Peninsula nonprofits every month.
Early childhood programs such Head Start; senior meals, which Hockett helped build as OlyCAP’s senior meals director 22 years ago; and senior housing and home care are among the other helper programs OlyCAP helps direct.
OlyCAP helps people with a variety of problems.
“People come in with symptoms,” Hockett said.
They can’t pay their power bill or pay their mortgage or even buy a monthly bus pass to look for a job, he said.
Home weatherization program
OlyCAP’s home weatherization program has helped needy families bring down their power bills, he said.
“Keep in mind that low-income people tend to live in substandard housing,” he said.
OlyCAP weatherizes some 200 homes a year by doing something as simple as weather-stripping around drafty doors.
Much of what OlyCAP does is connect the person in need with the right help, Hockett said.
He talked about the Port Hadlock jail prisoner on volunteer detail for good behavior who helped the food bank in Chimacum put its forklift back together again, postal workers who pick up donated canned goods while delivering the mail and the downtown Port Angeles seven-chair dental clinic.
But all this can’t continue to happen without assistance at all levels in the public and private sectors, he said, which have fallen victim to hard economic times as well.
“I think the safety net is breaking,” Hockett said.
After his vacation, Hockett plans to spend some time writing.
Hired in August 1989 to run OlyCAP’s senior nutrition program, Hockett was later promoted to division director and then was promoted to deputy director in 2001.
He served in that capacity for five years under the previous executive director, Dan Wollam, and when Wollam left in 2005, he was named executive director.
Hockett expects a smooth transition to new OlyCAP leadership after he leaves and praised OlyCAP’s volunteer board members.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.