SAN DIEGO — In just a matter of weeks, San Diego County residents who live in District Four will head to the polls for a special election. They'll be voting for a new County Supervisor to fill the seat Nathan Fletcher left empty.
CBS 8 had an opportunity to speak one-on-one with each candidate before heading in to an event hosted Wednesday evening by the San Diego Central Chamber of Commerce. One of the first questions: Why do they want this position in the first place?
"My 'why' is to literally change the course of San Diego," said District 4 candidate Amy Recihert, a small business owner who works as a licensed private investigator. "We need to change course and I will be a champion for San Diegans."
"I'm ready for it, and this is the time," said her opponent for the vacant District 4 seat, Monica Montgomery Steppe, who is currently President pro Tem of the San Diego City Council. "We have so many issues that we have to deal with, and I am well positioned to do so."
Among the most pressing issues facing the County: housing and homelessness, which each candidate cited as their top priority.
Montgomery Steppe said she looks at the county's homelessness crisis as a "spectrum'" impacting a wide range of different populations.
"It is not a one size fits all," she told CBS 8. "The County has the resources to do the job through the Health and Human Services infrastructure. I'm really excited to dig in and get started on those solutions."
Reichert pointed to the County's $100 million settlement from opioid manufacturers as part of the solution for homelessness.
"What we need to do is use that opioid settlement money on treatment and recovery," she said. "And I think that would really help, especially the people living in the encampments."
Each candidate has her own strategy for creating more accessible and affordable housing for San Diegans.
"We aren't building single-family homes here," Reichert told CBS 8. "We can do that. All of the building has been happening in Murrieta and Temecula and of course that's not good for the environment. It's just causing traffic congestion on the 15. Let's build sensibly here in San Diego County so people can stay."
Montgomery Steppe has a different vision.
"I want to work with the state to try to streamline some of the processes when it comes to building," Montgomery Steppe said, "But we need, especially, affordable housing, We need to build housing so that people who are making a moderate income can live here as well and don't have to move out of state."
The special election to fill the District 4 County Supervisor seat will be held on November 7. The winner will fill the remainder of the current term, which ends in January of 2027.
WATCH RELATED: Montgomery Steppe takes early lead in San Diego County District 4 supervisor special election