County Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher encouraged motels in El Cajon to "hold the line" in the face of possible fines for renting out too many rooms to homeless people under the county's voucher program.
Last week, Mayor Bill Wells and City Manager Graham Mitchell claimed the county was "dumping" a disproportionate amount of homeless people from other areas in city motels, placing an unfair burden on the city. Travelodge, Relax Inn & Suites, Rancho San Diego Inn and America’s Best Value Inn were warned that fines would begin at $100 a day and increase up to $1,000 a day after the fourth violation.
Managers of several El Cajon motels met Monday to discuss how they will proceed and they're expected to make a decision by Friday.
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"I don’t anticipate that fining is the big issue. We certainly don’t want to fine people," Wells said. "What we want to do is to rectify the problem and we don’t want to be inundated with homeless on our streets. We want some equity we want the rest of the county to do their share."
An increase in calls to police was how city leaders first learned of what they claim is an increase in motel voucher program usage, according to Wells.
"I have to defend the people of East County. I have to defend the people of El Cajon. We will participate in this program and we certainly do a lot for the homeless, but we don’t want to be the only people carrying the water."
Fletcher said El Cajon is not being targeted.
"We have these programs going in five or six other cities. El Cajon is the only city that wants to blow up the program that is getting people off the streets," Fletcher said.
The voucher program uses county funds to pay up to $145 per night for homeless people in need of a room, and motels can choose how many vouchers they want to accept.
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"The majority of these folks are from El Cajon, and 95% of them are from East County and a third of the people that have been on the voucher program have gotten wrap-around services and treatment and been connected to permanent housing," Fletcher said.
Joseph Villanueva has worked for the Santee-based homeless outreach group Crisis House for the past three years.
"A lot of people that experience homelessness here, from what we see, are from East County," Villanueva said. "I've seen quite a few successes with the voucher program. We take it for granted that we are able to go home at the end of the day and have a roof over our head. A lot of people in East County that experience homelessness, they don’t have that luxury. So being able to put them in a shelter or hotel moves them that much closer to some semblance of stability."
While there has been a slight increase recently in the number of voucher program participants, the homeless population in El Cajon has increased by 70% in the last two years, according to Fletcher.
Homeless advocates like Villanueva think the motel voucher program is working.
"We are better together than we are butting heads," he said. "The best thing about community is when people come together toward one goal and we are able to accomplish pretty much … miracles."
