Candidates for SD City Council District 3 differ on approach to homelessness

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – City Councilman Stephen Whitburn faces a challenge on Election Day Tuesday from lawyer and educator Coleen Cusack in the race to represent District 3, the city’s downtown and governmental core.
Whitburn, who is also chair of the Metropolitan Transit System’s board of directors, took 52.5% of the vote in the March primary to Cusack’s 20.8% in a field of four.
Both candidates are Democrats running for the officially nonpartisan position — but they present two very different approaches to addressing homelessness in the city.
Whitburn was instrumental in getting a controversial camping prohibition law passed, and has focused on getting unhoused people into shelters and off the streets, along with approving thousands of homes in his role a member of the council’s Land Use and Housing Committee.
“I also look forward to all San Diegans having safer and healthier neighborhoods where public areas are used for their intended purposes,” he said when the unsafe camping ordinance was passed. “Together, we can improve the quality of life in communities across San Diego.”
Cusack is a homeless advocate who seeks to increase the housing supply to get people off the streets, and said there is misinformation about the homeless population in the city and county that serves only to stigmatize them.
“We owe a moral and a legal duty to the residents of our city to provide housing for everyone and all income groups,” her campaign website reads. “When we fail in that obligation we cannot hide from our failures by turning the blame to the individual homeless.”
Whitburn has been endorsed by the San Diego County Democratic Party, San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, San Diego City Firefighters, San Diego Police Officers Association, Reps. Scott Peters and Sara Jacobs, Mayor Todd Gloria and four of his colleagues on the council. He was elected in 2020.
Cusack has been endorsed by the San Diego Union-Tribune, California Democratic Renters Council, San Diego Education Association, Run Women Run and former mayoral candidate Geneviéve Jones-Wright.