ESCONDIDO, Calif. — On Wednesday night, the Escondido City Council approved its new policy toward homelessness.Some in the community, including Greg Angela, the CEO of Interfaith Community Services, attended the meeting to voice their concerns to the council.
Aside from moving away from the housing-first model, the approved policy adjusts Escondido no longer supporting programs that would enable drug use or allow people to keep living on the street, as mentioned in the policy.“If we’re going to invest a significant amount of our tax-payer dollars, I think it’s totally appropriate to require some level of accountability,” Escondido Mayor Dane White said.
“I think it’s totally appropriate to enforce the law," White said."And I think the important distinction, you know, like you heard from our police chief, we can’t tell somebody you can’t camp on the sidewalk. We’ve got to provide them a place to go. So, we’re looking for solutions, not criminalizing homelessness."