Differing visions on how to address San Diego’s dire, ongoing homelessness issues were on display during a recent candidate’s forum between the two General Election challengers, both Democrats, for the District 3 City Council seat.
Incumbent councilmember Stephen Whitburn claimed the current city administration is taking action and making positive strides. He expressed support for the city’s proposal to build a 1,000-bed mega shelter, but conceded the plan needs to be amended.
Challenger Coleen Cusack, an educator and a lawyer who has done pro bono work on behalf of the unhoused for decades, believes the status quo is worse now than any time during the last four years Whitburn has been in office. She’s staunchly against the mega-shelter proposal.
The candidate forum took place August 9 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in North Park. It was sponsored by the San Diego Organizing Project, which includes 24 member congregations.
Nearly all the questions during the one-hour-plus forum were directly or indirectly focused on homelessness: mandates to clear encampments; criminal enforcement of the unhoused; racism; affordable housing; shelters for LGBTQ+ youth; addiction issues; and proactive vs. reactive steps to create shelters.
After the forum, both candidates were asked their opinion on the 1,000-bed mega shelter proposed by Mayor Todd Gloria’s administration. The proposed 65,000-square-foot site for the mega shelter is at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street, on the east side of the city’s downtown airport.
The mega shelter is a crucial component in Mayor Gloria’s promise to increase shelter inventory by 2025. The proposal has been strenuously debated in city council chambers and a vote has been delayed. The issue is on hiatus pending an August council recess.
The mega-shelter proposal has been dogged by skeptics raising concerns about leasing costs, as well as its location and ability to provide necessary services to so many residents in one spot.
“It’ll come back to the city council in September,” Whitburn said. “We’ll see if there is progress in the negotiations between the city and the property owner. I think for it to pass the city council it’ll have to see significant progress in creating a deal more people feel is a good deal for the city.”
Nonetheless, Whitburn said he would vote for the proposal as is.
“If I had to, yes,” he said. “The most important thing we can do is help people experiencing homelessness in unsafe and unhealthy conditions on the street get into a safer and healthier place.”
You can’t put a price tag on a human life, he said.
“We lost more than 600 people last year because of the horrific conditions they are experiencing, ”Whitburn said. “We need to get them into a safer and healthier place. We also need to continue to negotiate hard to get the best deal that we can.”
Whitburn points out he has advocated for concessions.
“I’ve spoken to the mayor, the property owner and others about what I’d like to see for a more palatable deal,” he says. “I’m not saying I love the deal. What I’m saying is we’ve got to get people off the streets. My constituents feel unsafe in many cases. And we’ve got a humanitarian crisis here that is unacceptable. We can’t wait for a perfect deal to come along to start saving the lives of these people who are living in squalor on our streets.”
Cusack shook her head at the mention of the mega shelter.
“I don’t think anybody, except the [property] owner, [Mayor] Gloria and Whitburn, are for it,” she said.
For $12.8 million dollars less, Cusack said the city could put a roof over everybody’s heads in market rate housing that’s available right now.
“The cost of $32 million a year is preposterous,” she said. “If we have that much money annually, times 30 years for the lease, why aren’t we housing people with it?”
She added that housing 1,000 people in one location is “insane, cruel and heartless. There’s not a single senior that would be safe in that location. Seniors might as well walk in with targets on their backs.”
Cusack said she believes Whitburn supports the mega shelter because he’s part of an administration that promised additional shelter beds and is in danger of not meeting that promise.
“They’re looking at a net deficit of shelter beds since [Whitburn] took office,” Cusack said. “So he has to get 1,000 beds in a single location so he can get that number up.”
Whitburn and Cusack have now held three candidate forums are are committed to at least one more. Both have agreed to a September 5 forum in University Heights, moderated by the League of Women Voters.
The General Election is Tuesday, November 5. Registered voters in San Diego County will receive a ballot in the mail the week of October 6. For more voting information, go to: Registrar of Voters. SDSun
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