Colin Parent, a La Mesa council member and head of the mobility nonprofit Circulate San Diego, is running for the open seat representing the 79th Assembly District, which stretches from southeastern San Diego into Lemon Grove, La Mesa and El Cajon. He is a Democrat. 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. Why are you running, and what makes you the best candidate? Passion for public service has been the driving force in my life. Over my two-decade career, I’ve championed solutions to our most serious problems. California faces challenges, and together we can overcome them. I grew up in east San Diego, becoming an Eagle Scout with Troop 362. In 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed me to work on housing, homelessness and economic development. I later served as director of policy at the San Diego Housing Commission. Today, I am an environmental attorney advocating for affordable homes and safe streets near schools. Eight years ago, La Mesa voters elected me to City Council. We’ve made real progress. We doubled funding for our homeless outreach team and adopted the first citywide ordinances for housing affordability. We approved policies to help homeowners invest in their properties and build equity. I want to continue that service to my constituents and beyond in the state Assembly. What are the top 3 issues facing this district and California generally? High cost of living, especially housing, is the most pressing issue facing voters in the 79th Assembly District. I’m constantly hearing from residents about the rent being too high and the impossibility of someone buying their first home. Energy prices we pay are also sky-high, and we need reforms to make sure people can afford to make a life here. Homelessness is a major issue throughout our state. As a council member, I’m proud to have funded and expanded La Mesa’s first ever Homeless Outreach Team. We need more help from the state, since this issue is bigger than any one city. Public safety is always a top priority. We can’t educate children or grow our economy if people are not safe and do not feel safe. A broad majority in California believes that public safety should get strong funding and support, while also believing in appropriate measures for accountability. What are the first 3 things you would do in your first/next term in the Legislature? Housing affordability: Homeownership is out of reach for too many people. Starter homes are virtually nonexistent. I’ll propose a bill to eliminate regulatory barriers that are preventing the construction of traditionally affordable for-sale housing types like townhomes. Fix the Roads Act: I’ve proposed a bill to require accountability for how local governments use the existing Senate Bill 1 funds for road repair. The Fix the Roads Act will require cities to prioritize the streets that are in the worst shape and those where improvements can prevent crashes and save lives. Homelessness: The biggest obstacle to solving homelessness is the shortage of affordable homes. I will support a $10 billion statewide bond to support the construction of permanently affordable homes. Affordable housing is necessary but not sufficient, so we must also fund more mental health and addiction resources. What would you do to curb climate change and its effects on California, including the fact that those effects are often borne disproportionately by communities of color? Climate is a major issue for today, and we need elected officials with the experience and commitment to reduce our climate impact. I am the only candidate endorsed by Climate Action California. And I lead a climate-focused nonprofit that champions policies to reduce our region’s climate impacts. As a council member, I led on La Mesa’s adoption of our Climate Action Plan, and I’m proud that we were recognized as the best city in the region for climate action implementation Climate action doesn’t have to be about making people do things they don’t want to do, like eating their vegetables. Instead we can invest in improved public transit, and safer street infrastructure, so that more people can choose climate-friendly transportation to get around. That has co-benefits for communities of color who rely more frequently on transit and bicycles to get around our community. Do you agree with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson, allowing cities to criminally penalize homeless people with nowhere else to go for sleeping in public? Do you support the governor’s executive order directing agencies to clear encampments on this basis? Why or why not? Grants Pass was probably correct on the legal merits, but it shouldn’t determine how we address our homelessness crisis. Of course, we cannot tolerate people living permanently in our parks or on sidewalks. But we also need real solutions and places for homeless people to go. Ticketing homeless individuals for sleeping on the street, or for riding the trolley without a pass, doesn’t do anything to get them off the streets and into housing. As a young attorney, I volunteered at Homeless Court. The most frequent issue for my formerly homeless clients was a crushing number of trolley tickets that they would never have any chance to pay. That’s not a solution. Instead we need to be investing in affordable homes and services for mental health and addiction. When someone is told they cannot sleep in a park, they need to be introduced to easily accessible services and housing. What more would you do to combat California’s housing, affordability and homelessness crises? I’ve personally written two bills signed by the governor that make housing more affordable for lower-income and middle-income Californians. AB 1287 and AB 2345 make enhancements to California’s existing law that streamlines developments that include more deed-restricted affordable homes. We need more win-win solutions like these to speed the construction of homes people can afford. I plan to author a bill to require cities to allow more townhomes that can be purchased by moderate-income households. That used to be a more common type of starter home, and we need to bring it back. For renters who cannot qualify for subsidized housing, we need to allow a greater diversity of apartment types beyond just luxury apartments. These should include efficiency apartments and student housing. These product types are important to affordability in other regions (and our own past) but are often functionally banned by local governments. Do you support or oppose stricter gun laws and background checks? Which, and if you support them, to what extent? Yes, and I have been a strong supporter of gun violence prevention efforts throughout my career in politics and public policy. Most recently, I voted to direct La Mesa staff to prepare a safe-storage ordinance to keep kids safe in their homes. I support a broad range of background check rules. We can acknowledge and respect the Second Amendment while also supporting reasonable gun regulations that broad majorities of the public support. The biggest barrier to additional action on gun violence protection is activist federal judges who keep overturning reasonable laws passed by California and other states. To combat this threat, California must get creative and pursue a legal strategy to fight the radical judges that are preventing us from passing laws to protect people. 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? I plan to vote for Proposition 36. I say this as someone who also voted to support Proposition 47. When Proposition 47 was before the voters, California had major prison overcrowding and serious budget challenges. It was the right decision at the time. Today, we have different challenges like fentanyl and retail theft. I hoped that the legislature and governor would address these current challenges this year. Unfortunately, Sacramento failed, and voters need to step in and adopt reasonable reforms to address the challenges we are facing today. Proposition 3 would enshrine same-sex marriage in the California constitution by repealing the state’s 2008 ban, which has been unenforceable since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage but still remains on the books. Will you personally vote for or against Prop. 3? I will be enthusiastically voting for Prop 3. The first day marriage equality was legal in California, I served as a witness for my friends Brian and Robbie who married at the County Admiration Building. I am endorsed by the Democrats for Equality, San Diego’s LGBT Democratic Club. I’m proud that under our La Mesa City Council, we became the first city in East County to fly the Pride Flag over city hall. Everyone should feel welcomed in our community. Everyone should have the same rights and opportunities to marry to pursue the good life as they see it.