The El Cajon City Council voted unanimously March 28 to move forward with developing regulations for the city’s motels and hotels being used by the county to house homeless people.
The vote came following recent incidents of violent crimes and several arrests of homeless individuals utilizing the county’s voucher program at the city’s hotels.
“This is not a brand new problem,” Mayor Bill Wells said at a March 21 council meeting in regard to having difficulty cooperating with the county. “El Cajon is carrying about 50 percent of the burden for this program and yet El Cajon represents about 3 percent of the population. Where’s the equity in that?”
The regulations are intended to improve safety and reduce the need for fire and police services which are caused by a recent uptick in crime at these locations, according to a March 21 statement by City Manager Graham Mitchell.
In his recommendation for the new regulations, Mitchell expressed frustration with the county over a lack of communication about those who it is sending to El Cajon as part of its attempts to deal with homelessness in the region.
“It’s inappropriate that our partners in the region are unwilling to be transparent with how they are utilizing motels in El Cajon,” he said.
One of the proposed regulations includes a new requirement for organizations used by the county to place people in the city’s motels and hotels to report placement of registered sex offenders within 2 hours, rather than relying on the offender to self-report within 10 days.
One of the more controversial, and potentially legally challenging, regulations is to place a 90-day moratorium on accepting any new homeless persons from outside the city.
Mitchell said the moratorium would encourage the county to communicate with the city about the program and its perceived problems.
“Despite the city’s efforts, no one has come to the table and sat down with us, because there’s not a perceived problem from their perspective,” he said.
In addition to the recommended regulations, the city will amend its municipal code to require any organization placing homeless people in El Cajon to get what’s called a special operations license. The license would require an organization to inform the city of how many people are being placed, how long they will be staying, and a discharge plan.
The discharge plan is intended to prevent the homeless from having to fend for themselves on the streets if they don’t get into permanent housing by the end of their participation in the program, according to city officials.
“We can help the homeless without harboring criminals,” Councilman Phil Ortiz said in a March 21 statement. “Just because you’re homeless, doesn’t mean you get to commit crime.”
