EL CAJON (KGTV) – Homelessness in San Diego County is seen pretty much everywhere.
Every year, the Regional Task Force on Homelessness does an annual snapshot called the Point In Time Count on how things look across the region.
“When we saw the numbers come in, they didn't really jive with what I saw out on the street, and so we started digging in,” Graham Mitchell, City Manager for City of El Cajon, said.
As ABC 10News reported, the 2025 Point in Time Count completed by the Task Force showed the number of people on El Cajon’s streets jumped 283 to 344 from last year to this year.
“I never expected a jump like that and frankly it made me question the methodology to some degree,” Mayor Bill Wells of City of El Cajon said in May when the numbers were released.
Mitchell told ABC 10News the City met and worked with the RTFH to take a closer look at the numbers.
“And identified that there were a lot of folks that were counted as El Cajon homeless that actually don't live in the city of El Cajon,” Graham said.
The Regional Task Force on Homelessness said Tuesday there were 24 people counted for El Cajon who were outside of the city limits.
“We’ve said the Point-in-Time Count is an imperfect tool, but it is a vital one in helping us understand the scope of homelessness across our region. While it’s just one snapshot in time, the data informs how we plan, fund, and deliver services to those most in need,” Tamera Kohler, CEO of RTFH said in a statement.
The RTFH said it is doing two updates to the El Cajon data.
The Task Force said the census tracts, or map areas, for El Cajon, which it uses to do the Point in Time Count, do have some map areas that are outside of the city limits and some that span both the city and adjacent unincorporated areas.
That led to some confusion.
The Task Force said that, to be consistent year to year when it comes to the Point In Time Count, it’ll use the same census tracts in the count. But, the designation will change from the “El Cajon" to "El Cajon (including unincorporated communities)."
“This is extremely encouraging that the regional task force wants to work with cities like the city of El Cajon in understanding the data better,” Mitchell said. “When we can't trust the data, it's hard for us to make policy decisions based on that. But now that we have a better sense of where the data is, what the data is, we know how to move forward.”
The RTFH said it also found that some unsheltered people may have been counted twice along Caltrans right-of-ways in El Cajon. So it and the City have agreed that they can have better coordination to cut down on the chances of double-counting and have more accurate data.
“We value our partnerships with cities like El Cajon, whose engagement and feedback help strengthen the interpretation and transparency of the count,” Kohler said. “Collaborative efforts like this make our entire regional response more effective.”
