EL CAJON, Calif. (KGTV) — San Diego County has spent $58.3 million on a homeless program over the past five years, with minimal success in finding those involved permanent homes, an investigation by Team 10 has found .

Team 10 found that nearly a fifth of the funding, or $11.2 million, went to Equus, an out-of-state contractor for San Diego County, which helped just 39 percent of the 2,400 participants find permanent housing.

That’s what the program is all about after taking someone off the streets and into a hotel room.

Meanwhile, El Cajon, a conservative community in East County, was the epicenter of the regional homeless assistance program.

On most nights, the city’s budget hotels host 103 of the 250 households involved in the program, records show. Mayor Bill Wells said the program has burdened the city’s police department with calls for drug overdoses, sex crimes and car thefts.

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The examination in Equus is part of Team 10’s effort to continue a previous investigation of widespread problems on how the company used tax dollars to deposit victims of the historic January 22nd floods.

That Team 10 investigation led to county supervisors’ approval last month of a financial audit of how Equus managed tax dollars.

Equus declined repeated requests for comment and referred questions to the county.

Unelected county officials have repeatedly stood behind Equus, with a county spokesperson telling Team 10 the company helped thousands of San Diegans find respite during the flood and that it has the skills to “find available housing for people in crisis”.

However, those in the regional hotel home assistance program say tax dollars are being wasted.

– Where does all the money go?

“Where does all the money go?” said Kelly Pickenpaugh, who has attended the program for about a year and a half. “Through this program, I signed documents that I would get stable, permanent housing and I didn’t receive them. .”

The 60-year-old former businesswoman said she became homeless following a spinal cord injury and entered the program at the end of May 2023.

Team 10, through a public records request, obtained documents showing the county — through Equus — pays $140 a night, or about $4,000 a month, for her to stay in low-cost hotels in El Cajon.

The average rent in El Cajon for a one-bedroom is about $1,800 a month, according to real estate service Zillow.

Zillow also says there are more than 40 such apartments for rent in El Cajon for that price or less.

“It’s unbelievable to me because the rent is so much cheaper,” Pickenpaugh said. “And to say there’s no housing, there’s all kinds of housing out there. All kinds of apartments for rent.”

Team 10 checks the prices

Nader Shaba, 53, was Pickenpaugh’s neighbor. And he’s been on the show for about the same amount of time.

He said typical hotel guests pay about $800 less per month than those in the Equus program.

“An elderly lady, she pays $3,200 to stay in this motel every month,” Shaba said. “Equus pays $4,000.”

Team 10 checked prices and found nightly rates of $75 to $107, including taxes and fees, at seven different hotels Equus used in El Cajon.

That’s significantly less than the $140 a night the county pays.

A county spokesman said the $140 nightly rate is the price agreed to in a contract with Equus and includes taxes and fees. In addition, the spokesperson said there are 30 hotels participating in the program across the county, where costs may vary.

But Shaba said the amount spent on hotels could put him and others in stable housing.

“That $4,000. I mean, I can rent a house with that money instead of being in those hotels, moving every 28 days,” he said.

It moves every 28 days

If Equus cannot find a permanent residence for those in the program, the county requires residents to pack up and move out after 28 days, so the hotel is not considered permanent residence.

Pickenpaugh said he has bounced around five different El Cajon hotels in the past year and a half.

She said she is grateful not to be on the streets, but adds that the move has had a negative effect.

“It was a struggle for my body. I got diabetes because you don’t get to cook,” she said. “So it’s a struggle because you’re living in your car for a few hours, then you’re off to your next hotel.”

Other rules

Pickenpaugh said there are other rules: no unauthorized guests, no illegal activities and no illegal drug use.

She said she follows those regulations to a tee.

However, Pickenpaugh said that’s not the norm.

“There is a lot of addiction in this program and I watched it. It’s very difficult for me. I was dealing with the O-Ding people,” she said. “I saw a lot of ambulances and them coming and taking people out of their rooms.”

Police activity

El Cajon records show that the program’s hotels had a lot of police activity.

El Cajon police over the course of six months last year responded to at least seven incidents involving people in the Equus program at various hotels.

Police report details on drugs, overdoses, illegal weapons, sex offenders, child endangerment and car theft.

Mayor Bill Wells, who worked in psychiatric medicine, is livid with the county program.

“I think it’s incredibly unfair to the city of El Cajon that we have to deal with sex offenders and drug addicts and people who would never have been in El Cajon but were transported here,” he said.

Wells said the city has no say in the program, and the county and Equus are taking advantage of El Cajon.

“We have an area in El Cajon that has a lot of budget hotels. So they went to these hotels; it gives them more money than they could get on the market alone. And they basically fill these hotels with homeless people,” he said. “My complaint has always been the fairness of it. At one time, about 55% of the people in this program were living in El Cajon motels, while El Cajon is only 3% of the community (homeless).

A county spokesman said people entering the program agree to a code of conduct.

He added that there were some bad results, but the overwhelming number of participants did not fit the profile of the people who caused trouble in El Cajon.

The spokesperson also said affordable housing options are limited in San Diego County.

Meanwhile, Pickenpaugh and Shaba told Team 10 last week that they received vouchers for permanent housing after Team 10 began their investigation
in the program from the hotel to the house.

Shaba said Team 10’s investigation was “100 percent” the reason he received a voucher.