San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
EAST COUNTY CITIES VOW TO FIND MORE SPACE TO AID HOMELESS
Region has shelter for about 500, but more than 3 times that need it
You have limited options you’re homeless in East County.
There are no shelters in Santee. There are no shelters in Lemon Grove. There are dozens of rooms in La Mesa, but only for young people. And while hundreds can be housed at one El Cajon facility, it does not allow pets or smoking and its leadership has said the shelter may not be ideal for everyone.
In total, the region appears to have shelter space for about 500 people while more than three times that need housing.
San Diego County’s homelessness crisis can’t be solved with just beds. But the county is making millions of dollars available to cities that want new shelters, and East County leaders have made the lack of beds a key part of a proposal working its way through local councils.
Officials recently negotiated a memorandum of understanding pledging to find more sites for both emergency and long-term housing, and the Santee City Council approved it 5-0 on Wednesday. The agreement already passed in El Cajon and La Mesa.
The votes come as a new tally shows a fifth of San Diego County’s homeless population living in the region.
There were nearly 1,700 people in East County without homes as of February, which is likely an undercount, according to the Regional Task Force on Homelessness.
Most were not on the streets due to hotel vouchers. More than 90 percent of the people listed as “sheltered” in the data were using some form of voucher, according to Jegnaw Zeggeye, the task force’s chief data officer.
Vouchers have been a lifeline amid the pandemic, but at least one local program has been winding down, and vouchers don’t necessarily come with the same level of support for addiction and mental illness that established facilities can have.
At the same time, choosing sites for more permanent housing can meet strong headwinds. if
When county leaders once tried to quickly convert a La Mesa hotel into a shelter, city leaders objected. A recent plan to renovate an old U.S. military barracks in Campo met fierce resistance from residents. Opposition is building on social media against a county plan to build about 60 small living quarters in Lakeside.
Some beds are also disappearing.
The nonprofit Volunteers of America used to have space for about 15 people at an El Cajon facility, but that effort shut down a few years ago, according to Daylin Murray, programs director for the Carlton G. Luhman Center for Supportive Living.
The program was going bankrupt, Murray said in a phone interview. (The center continues to house adults with mental illnesses.)
The largest organization in the region appears to be the East County Transitional Living Center in El Cajon. The facility’s three locations have 456 beds, according to acting CEO Ivan Andujar.
That includes 101 rooms for families and space for single men and women in two new dorms. The bed count can be increased if needed, although they have never run out of space for singles in the last two decades, Andujar said in interviews.
If rules limiting smoking or pets are a deal-breaker, he said staff help people find other options.
“Just because we can’t help you doesn’t mean we can’t get you pointed in the right direction,” Andujar added in one phone interview.
In La Mesa, there are 40 rooms at The Lodge for people between 18 and 24 years old, according to Assistant City Manager Carlo Tomaino.
The lack of shelters in Lemon Grove and Santee was confirmed by City Managers Lydia Romero and Marlene Best.
Other groups in those cities do help people find shelter, including Santee’s Crisis House, which places people in hotels. The Interfaith Shelter Network of San Diego has also housed people at East County houses of worship, although the program is seasonal.
Complicating the issue is that people sometimes want to stay near communities they know.
“The downtown population is totally different,” said Scott Eldridge, who spoke while sitting in a lawn chair in the Magnolia Avenue tent camp, just outside the border of El Cajon.
He’d heard people on San Diego streets could be more aggressive, and some shelters wouldn’t let him keep his pit bull, Snickers. He was also critical of the plan to explore a shelter in Campo, near the U.s.mexico border.
“What were they going to do, move us out there like cattle?” he asked.
blake.nelson@sduniontribune.com