CAP (GAP) presents 2025 outcomes: food rescue, supportive housing, energy assistance and hotel vouchers

Jeff Hansen, executive director of the CAP (GAP) agency, told county leaders the organization’s programs serve growing need across food, housing and energy assistance.

Hansen and CAP staff said food‑shelf demand is rising because of inflation and an aging population; the agency supplements limited grant funding with private donations and is pursuing food‑rescue expansion grants. CAP described mobile food distributions and partnerships that bring fresh food into schools and transitional housing.

On senior services, CAP reported providing more than 500 meals a day across three counties, relying heavily on volunteers. In energy assistance, CAP said it helped more than 10,000 households through application support in the most recent year, up from about 8,000 the prior year.

CAP staff explained supportive‑housing outcomes and prevention metrics: 153 prevention households served, 178 households exited to stable housing (a 97% success rate for exits reported) and 494 people served across the combined service area. Staff noted constraints: they can respond to only a fraction of 211 referrals each month because of funding limits.

Regarding shelter vouchers for severe weather, CAP reported issuing 183 vouchers to 101 unique households (average stay roughly three nights), using six Scott County hotels and expending about $62,000 of a $100,000 annual allocation for the program so far this year. Staff said they coordinate with hotels and police departments and have protocols to remove guests when behavior requires it.

Why it matters: CAP’s programs handle discrete, county‑level needs from daily nutrition to temporary shelter and from energy assistance to case‑managed exits from homelessness. Commissioners asked for clearer accounting of how many needs were county‑originated so county leaders could evaluate the value of contract or levy support.

Next steps: CAP offered to supply more detailed, county‑specific breakdowns of needs served and said it will continue pursuing grants and partnerships to stretch local funds.