EL CAJON, Calif. — El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells voiced his frustration again over the county’s hotel voucher program for homeless individuals. He said San Diego County officials are using El Cajon as a dumping ground for the homeless. He says the burden of dealing with the issue is being solely left to El Cajon.
Wells said, “What we have been fighting against in El Cajon is the county making El Cajon a homeless, crime-infested, lawless ghetto. Make no mistake, that is exactly what the county is trying to do. I know that El Cajon is not completely along. I know there are some other cities like Escondido that are also complaining about this, but for the most part the small cities are taking all of the burden and doing most of the work when it comes to dealing with this homeless problem and the voucher program when the other cities like Solana Beach, Encinitas and Carmel Mountain Ranch don’t have to deal with this problem.”
Wells continued saying that out of the 18 hotels in San Diego County’s voucher program, eight are in El Cajon.
Recently he issued warnings to the hotels who have 100 percent occupancy with participants in the program, citing the hotels are functioning as illegal homeless shelters. San Diego County pushed back on the warnings saying that Mayor Wells is “misinformed.”
In response to the warnings, California’s Attorney General Office made a legal threat demanding that El Cajon rescind the warnings and refrain from sending similar notices in the future citing they are a violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act.
Critics of Mayor Wells say that a majority of those staying in hotels are from El Cajon however, Wells denies that. “They told us they are being dropped off by county employees, they’ve been dropped off by deputies. Our police officers know the homeless people that are on the street. They know their faces and in a lot of cases they know their names. They are the ones who came to us saying they are being flooded with all these new faces, and our crime rate went up significantly. So, they are not from El Cajon. I can tell you that.”
CBS 8 asked what is next for the city of El Cajon. Mayor Wells said he will look into the legality of the situation for what is best for his community.
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