EL CAJON, Calif. (KGTV) – Whether you call it a problem or a crisis, homelessness is still a major issue in San Diego County and across California.
“We definitely care about the homeless problem,” El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells said.
That’s why there’s plenty of money being put behind addressing it.
“We had the opportunity to look at the grant, and at first look, it seemed really encouraging, the opportunity to get $5 million to help with our homeless situation,” Wells said.
On Tuesday, Wells and the El Cajon City Council weighed in on whether staff should apply for a state grant called the Encampment Resolution Fund (ERF) grant.
The ERF grant would be worth $5 million and would be used to address and clear encampments near I-8 and State Route 67. But Wells said the City Council voted 4-1 not to apply for it.
“As we looked into it deeper and deeper, it realized that the state of California was really putting some pretty significant handcuffs on us and how we treated homelessness in our city,” Wells said.
El Cajon’s mayor told ABC 10News the issue was the ERF grant funding would be tied to the state’s “housing first” approach to addressing the homelessness crisis.
That strategy mandates people are to be put into homes first to resolve their homelessness without sobriety, mental health treatment, or employment.
"We really resist the idea that ignoring these significant problems and just funneling people into hotels or housing, is not the answer,” Wells said. “Certainly, housing is part of the solution. But it's not the entirety of the solution."
According to the El Cajon city staff report, the City of Encinitas also recently decided not to pursue the grant for similar reasons.
ABC 10News covered how the cities of Carlsbad, Oceanside and San Diego have used the grant money to address the crisis in those communities.
San Diego officials told ABC 10News they’ve been able to house more than 175 people with the three ERF grants they’ve implemented from May 2023 through June 2026.
ABC 10News asked Wells, given the success that other communities have seen, was that taken into account before deciding not to apply for an ERF grant?
“Do you measure success by lives that are changed, and the ability for people to live independently, or are you measuring success by just a head on a bed in, in a room, and ignore the fact that the root causes of their problems are not being addressed in any way,” Wells said.
ABC 10News reached out to the California Housing and Community Development Department about the concerns and decision made by the City of El Cajon regarding the ERF grant.
“Encampment Resolution Funding (ERF) is a competitive grant program that, since 2023, has successfully placed 5,726 people into permanent housing as of the latest data available in the Homeless Data Integration System. The state has a responsibility to invest taxpayer dollars in approaches that, when implemented correctly, reduce homelessness, improve housing outcomes and long-term housing stability, and connect people to needed services,” an HCD spokesperson told ABC 10News in a statement.
According to the HCD, the ERF dollars can go towards different services like mental health and substance-use treatment programs. But those services have to be connected directly to permanent housing or with interim housing with a pathway to permanent housing.
Money can also go to different outreach services.
“For that reason, state funding is accompanied by accountability measures designed to ensure taxpayer resources are deployed through strategies supported by evidence and consistent with state law,” an HCD spokesperson also said in their statement.
