El Cajon leaders have recently worried about how homeless people renting local rooms affect the area.

But after reviewing records at all hotels and motels, officials now have broader concerns about how often police and paramedics are visiting facilities throughout the city.

Council members advanced a measure Tuesday to develop a plan that could ultimately penalize owners that are constantly calling first responders, in an effort to discourage motels from accepting too many “high-risk people.”

“What we’re saying is: Be more mindful of who you rent a room to,” said Councilmember Steve Goble, who’s on a subcommittee that has been meeting with owners. “That’s what is driving calls for service; it doesn’t matter where they came from, it doesn’t matter who paid for the room.”

The council’s rough plan follows a months-long dispute with county and state leaders over how many homeless vouchers should be allowed in East County’s largest city. More facilities accept vouchers in El Cajon than other parts of the region and many renters are from outside the city, which officials have said puts undue strain on local resources.

There have recently been more arrests near some hotels accepting vouchers, although police data does not show an exact correlation between vouchers and crime.

The city initially threatened to fine places accepting high numbers of vouchers, but backed down the same day the state attorney general threatened to sue.

El Cajon has 16 motels and 2 hotels, which together have almost 1,000 rooms.

Officials said facilities shouldn’t have to call police or firefighters more than one time per room, per year. Said another way, a 10-room motel would ideally ask for help no more than 10 times a year, a standard detailed in a 2005 report by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Only four places are currently under that limit, officials said. Five were close to the line while nine were notably above.

The city’s analysis covered calls for service from both fire and police departments during recent 12-month periods.

After Tuesday’s 4-0 vote, staffers must now hammer out more specific rules for owners. Leaders said they would first warn, and work with, motels creating a “public nuisance” before threatening to revoke licenses.

Officials cast the plan as a way to ensure residents and visitors alike are protected. Goble gave an example of domestic violence victims from outside the city who use vouchers in El Cajon.

“Those people deserve a healthy, safe place to be while they’re escaping a dangerous situation,” he said.

Goble added that he wasn’t concerned the plan would discourage people from calling during real emergencies because four places had already found a way to meet the proposed standard without prodding from the city.

“You’ll be more motivated not to rent your room to high school kids to have parties, you’ll be more motivated to not rent your rooms for prostitution purposes,” said City Manager Graham Mitchell. “This program, if it’s set up right, will give them more responsibility to be selective of who they are renting to without being discriminatory.”

California’s attorney general had previously said fining hotels accepting vouchers was a form of income discrimination.

On Tuesday, City Attorney Morgan Foley said the new plan sidestepped that concern by focusing on renters’ behavior, not their source of income.

The changes could similarly pressure organizations issuing vouchers, like Equus, to ramp up the support they offer participants, officials said.

“If you’re a property owner and you’re allowing homeless vouchers — now, all of a sudden, you have an incentive to ensure that Equus, or whoever, is doing the wrap-around services,” Mitchell added.

Click here to read the full article in the San Diego Union Tribune

Goal is new era of cooperation; agencies aim for 10,000 subsidized units built on government land

The region’s housing crisis is prompting San Diego city and county elected officials to hold an unusual joint meeting Monday to spur construction of 10,000 subsidized housing units on public land by 2030.

The move comes after years of friction and lack of cooperation between the county and the city on a variety of issues, most notably the Hepatitis A health crisis five years ago.

The joint panel will take the kind of leadership role typically expected of the San Diego Association of Governments, a regional agency that also includes officials from the county and all 18 local cities.

It will be the first time in more than 22 years that the San Diego City Council and the San Diego County Board of Supervisors have held a joint meeting, and only the second such meeting in nearly 32 years.

Leaders said Wednesday that such a meeting is necessary because of the severity of the housing crisis and its impact on the economy, homelessness, social equity and general quality of life.

The two largest government agencies in the region must come together to set an example of cooperation and leadership on building more affordable housing, said council President Sean Elo-Rivera and board Chair Nathan Fletcher.

The San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, has been mentioned in recent years as a potential leader on cooperative housing efforts. But Fletcher and Elo-Rivera said a county-city panel is a better bet.

“What makes this especially important is some of the dysfunction we see at SANDAG,” Elo-Rivera said. “I sit on the board, and it’s the opposite of collaboration at many times. There are obstructionists who are trying to prevent actions from being taken.”

Elo-Rivera was referring to battles within SANDAG over funding, ballot measures, housing goals, possibly charging drivers fees to use roads and how to connect San Diego International Airport to transit.

Several cities have resisted state-mandated housing goals, with Coronado, Solana Beach, Imperial Beach and Lemon Grove unsuccessfully appealing the mandates to the state Supreme Court.

Click here to read the full article in the SD Union Tribune

The numbers have confirmed what many already suspected.

Homelessness has increased in San Diego County, and it’s especially apparent in several cities where tents and makeshift structures fill sidewalks, canyons and freeway offramps.

Results of the first homeless count in two years, released Thursday, found the number of people living in vehicles or outdoors without shelter increased 9 percent in the city of San Diego. In Oceanside, where city officials have introduced a hotel voucher program and plan to open a shelter, the number of people on the street increased 31 percent. In National City, where the San Diego Rescue Mission plans to open a shelter next year, the number of people living without shelter increased 19 percent.

In all, homelessness in San Diego County has increased 10 percent since January 2020, according to the report released by the San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness. The actual number is likely much higher, officials said, and it could worsen as pandemic housing subsidies and protections expire.

The Feb. 24 count found 8,427 homeless people in San Diego County, with just over half in shelters. The other 4,106 were living outside of shelters, a 3 percent increase from 2020. Of that number, 713 were in vehicles.

The count usually is done annually, but this was the first since January 2020 because of the pandemicand it showed the crisis persists despite increased efforts to get more people off the street.

Since the last count, the city has purchased two extended-stay hotels and converted them to permanent housing for more than 400 formerly homeless people, Father Joe’s Villages has opened a 407-unit affordable housing project, and the city and county have worked together to increase outreach teams and other efforts.

“But even with all of that, our numbers have increased,” said Tamera Kohler, president and CEO of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, the agency that coordinates the count.

“We have more people, we have more unsheltered, we have more challenges, and it is a little bit more miserable out there than I have seen in years.”

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said he wasn’t surprised at the increase.

“We see this with our own eyes every single day,” he said, adding that the pandemic likely contributed to the increased homeless population, which is happening throughout the state.

“The numbers could have been larger, frankly,” Gloria said.

Like Kohler, Gloria noted that the increase in homelessness happened despite many efforts to address it, but he is hopeful that new programs, more shelter beds and additional housing will improve next year’s numbers.

The city has added 271 shelter beds in the past year, a 25 percent increase, bringing the total to 1,468. An additional 450 beds are coming in the next few months, including a 125-bed shelter in the Midway area, a 40-bed women’s shelter and a 182-bed shelter for seniors and families that will be in two sites that have not yet been announced.

“Now, is it enough?” Gloria said. “No, it’s not. But I think it demonstrates a commitment with the city to acknowledge the problem.”

Of the 4,321 people counted in shelters in this year’s report, 3,036 people were in emergency shelters such as the large tents operated by the Alpha Project, 1,249 were in transitional housing and 36 in a safe-haven, temporary housing for people in rehab programs.

As usual, the city of San Diego had the largest population of homeless people in the county, with 2,307 people in shelters and 2,494 living without shelter.

Click here to read the full article in the San Diego Union Tribune