San Diego City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn is seeking a second term representing downtown and the neighborhoods around Balboa Park in District 3. To help inform voters, the San Diego Union-Tribune asked all the candidates a series of the same questions about their priorities, positions and campaigns. Their emailed answers have been lightly edited for clarity. Stephen Whitburn, candidate for San Diego City Council District 3 (Handout) Why are you running, and what makes you the best candidate? It has been an honor serving District 3 residents on the city council. I’m seeking reelection because I have led efforts to reduce homelessness, construct affordable housing and add neighborhood improvements, and I want us to keep moving forward. To reduce street homelessness, I opened two safe sleeping sites. They have security, restrooms, showers, meals and connections to housing. Over 1,200 people have moved off the streets and into these sites. I have led the way on adding truly affordable housing that limits rents to 30% of tenants’ incomes. The Helm is now open with 77 units. The Cortez Hill and Harrington Heights apartments are under construction with 358 units combined. Thousands more units are on the way. In our neighborhoods, I have opened dog parks, added traffic calming, expanded outdoor dining and more. We’re making good progress on several fronts, and I want to keep the momentum going. What are the top 3 issues facing the city? My constituents are most concerned about homelessness, housing affordability and the condition of city infrastructure from streets to storm drains. We must continue helping people experiencing homelessness off the streets and into shelter and safe sleeping sites. We’ve greatly reduced the number of encampments but still have work to do. To help more people off the streets, we need additional beds. I also support expanding programs to prevent homelessness by providing modest subsidies so struggling residents can pay rent. In addition to the affordable housing under construction, I support income-restricted housing at other sites. The city solicited proposals for an affordable complex at the site of the homelessness response center in East Village and plans to use the site of the old Central Library for affordable housing as well. Clearly, we must also speed up repairs to city infrastructure. I will continue to prioritize that in the coming budget discussion. What are the first 3 things you would do in office if elected or reelected? I will work to add shelters and safe sleeping sites in other parts of the city. Hundreds of people living on our streets have agreed to move to a shelter or safe sleeping site, but these options are often near capacity. Moreover, some parts of the city have no shelters. Beds should be added to accommodate people experiencing homelessness in every part of the city. Vacant parcels and empty buildings downtown can become blighted. I will pursue incentives to create housing on these parcels. Housing activates an area and creates a more welcoming environment. As the city identifies additional funding to improve infrastructure, I will ensure District 3 gets its fair share. Mission Valley, East Village, parts of North Park and Golden Hill and other neighborhoods in the district frequently experience flooding during storms, and infrastructure upgrades in these areas are long overdue. Do you support a 1-cent city sales tax increase? Why or why not? Voters will decide on this penny increase. I will vote for it. San Diego is tied for lowest sales tax in the county, and our streets show it. If ours were on par with other municipalities, San Diegans would have $400 million a year more to improve infrastructure and services. The city’s independent budget analyst has warned that next year’s budget cycle could be difficult absent a new revenue stream. Between that warning, the city’s infrastructure funding shortfall and its ongoing pension payments, what should the city do? Where should services be cut, and/or where should new revenue be sought? The city has operated for many years with ongoing expenses exceeding ongoing revenues. The difference has been made up by one-time funding sources such as federal pandemic relief. These one-time sources are drying up, so for the current fiscal year, city departments were instructed to propose budgets with two-percent cuts. This was prudent, and if the penny increase to the sales tax fails to pass, it would again be necessary to trim spending across departments since the city charter requires a balanced budget. Polling has shown housing and affordability to be a top issue for San Diegans, and city leaders and candidates have raised concerns about San Diegans being priced out and stressed the need for more homes that middle-income people can afford. What more should the city do to combat its housing affordability crisis? Too many San Diegans are struggling to pay the rent. We must create many more units of deed-restricted affordable housing where the rent is capped at 30% of the tenant’s income. I have voted to accelerate housing construction by reducing permit processing times and by allowing vacant office buildings to be converted to residential use. We now have more apartments, including affordable ones, opening in San Diego than we have in decades. Because of the increased supply, rents are no longer increasing at the rates they once were, but we must ensure that rents remain stable while incomes rise. Proposition 33 would allow cities to enact rent control beyond what they can now, but it’s drawn concerns about how it could curb new housing construction locally. Do you support Prop. 33? Why or why not? Beyond the specifics of that measure, do you support expanding local rent regulations more generally? If so, how so? California limits annual rent increases to 5% plus the rate of inflation. An additional municipal rent control ordinance would be counterproductive. Rent control may benefit a tenant who remains in an apartment for many years. But it incentivizes landlords to raise rents as much as possible in between tenants. That increases rents overall, making the city less affordable for young people renting their first apartment and current renters who would like to move to a nicer place. A more effective way to limit rent hikes is to increase the supply of apartments, creating more competition to attract tenants. How would you evaluate the record of Proposition 47 in the decade since voters enacted it? Should voters scale it back by passing Proposition 36? Why or why not? A decade ago, I voted for Proposition 47 because I did not believe that relatively minor crimes warranted long prison sentences. I still don’t. However, Prop. 47 has had unintended consequences that clearly require reform. The lack of any real punishment for shoplifting or certain drug offenses has resulted in a lawlessness that must be addressed. Proposition 36 will help restore order while still providing judges the latitude to hold offenders accountable with reasonable punishments. San Diego has too few shelter beds to accommodate the homeless people who need them and stands to lose more soon, but a proposal for a large congregate shelter lease has drawn scrutiny. How should the city act quickly to ensure everyone who wants it has shelter or housing? How should it balance this urgency with the need for due diligence? In recent weeks, we developed a Short-Term Action Plan on Homelessness, which I support. It will expand our successful Safe Sleeping sites, which are locations away from homes and businesses where homeless people have security, bathrooms, showers, laundry, meals and connections to services. The expansion will accommodate 230 more people. Meanwhile, we will identify sites where small shelters can be located, and we will lease motel room blocks to accommodate up to 150 people. Finally, we will identify people at immediate risk of becoming homeless and provide modest temporary rent subsidies to help them stay in their homes.