The city of El Cajon is the fourth largest municipality in San Diego County with over 100,000 residents. Although El Cajon is only 20 miles away from the city of San Diego, the region prides itself as being part of what is colloquially known as “East County.” This branding denotes a separation from the larger multinational nature of San Diego. Duncan Hunter Jr., a Republican and one of the first politicians to publicly endorse Trump’s candidacy is the Congressman representing the El Cajon area in Washington, D.C. Therefore, it comes as no surprise to anyone that the El Cajon City Council recently passed laws criminalizing the sharing of food in public parks.
The city of San Diego, ironically branded “America’s Finest City,” has one of the largest homeless populations in the country. As massive skyrises continue to be built by developers in the downtown area, the region’s most marginalized communities continue to be pushed out into the residential and suburban areas. These high-rise developments also impact the surrounding cities including the city of El Cajon, which boasts a recorded homeless population of at least 350 and a shocking 25 percent of residents living in abject poverty.
According to the local public television station, KPBS San Diego, the Hepatitis A outbreak that not too long ago made national headlines may have originated in El Cajon. The city has the second highest concentration of Hepatitis A cases in the county, with over 500 infected and over 20 confirmed dead in the county at-large. What is the city of El Cajon’s response to the health crisis? Declare war on the homeless.
The city of El Cajon, led by Mayor Bill Wells, argues that the only way to combat the Hepatitis A outbreak is to increase pressure on the city’s homeless. The new laws make panhandling, sleeping on the sidewalk and constructing encampments criminal offenses, increasing the likelihood of violations of the law and contact with the corrupt El Cajon Police Department. By shutting down public food distributions, the city has effectively neutralized dozens of religious and non-profit outreach services that serve the neediest of city residents, leaving many unsure of how they can continue serving the community.
In addition to these draconian laws criminalizing the homeless, there are also feelings of hostility remaining from last year’s 21-day occupation of the murder site of Alfred Olango by the ECPD. During the occupation, the community created what came to be known as Olango Village. Community members offered a daily dinner service for the community, reminiscent of work done by the Black Panther Party. These first-time organizers offered full meals and drinks to all members of the community free of charge, with limited finances and under constant threat of state violence. It is the opinion of this writer, who engaged in that occupation and served the people of El Cajon, that these laws are opportunistically written to criminalize not only the homeless, but also community political activism and service.
For years city and county officials sat back and refused to acknowledge the root cause of the housing crisis. The exploitation of the working class in San Diego can only lead to results such as those we are now facing: increased homelessness, shocking poverty rates, skyrocketing substance abuse, and a never-ending stream of unjustifiable state sponsored murder. The city claims that it is investing resources into services like temporary housing and drug/alcohol treatment, but the people of El Cajon cannot wait for empty promises. It is a travesty that war spending increases while our people suffer. It is unforgivable that thousands lie homeless while multi-million-dollar skyrises pollute the city. We need solutions NOW, not stop-gap measures aimed at prolonging the status quo.
On November 19 and November 20 community members including the local Food Not Bombs came out in defiance of the city ordinance. Both food distributions were highly successful with lots of volunteers coming out and an abundance of food for the community. Food Not Bombs plans to continue to defy the ordinance and will distribute food on December 22.
The San Diego branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation remains committed to serving our neighbors in El Cajon and throughout the county. We stand with those who resist these unjust laws and continue to serve the most marginalized members of the working class.
