SAN DIEGO — The two candidates running for the fourth district seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors participated in a candidate forum Monday in Kensington. They were asked about how they would handle homelessness, housing, and immigration.
"I'm hoping we're going to get two livewires up here and will be lucky with whoever comes out ahead," said Carolyn Satter, a Kensington resident.
Amy Reichert and Monica Montgomery Steppe discussed how they hope to tackle the homeless crisis.
"I'm an advocate for shelter first with treatment. When there's an intersection of homelessness, severe addiction, mental illness and crime, I'd like to see people diverted from jail and instead into treatment," Reichert said.
Montgomery-Steppe shared one of her ideas.
"To be able to be housed by people willing to take them in. Right now, we don't have a system for that. I think housing is the answer to the problem," she said.
Candidates also talked about immigration. Over the past month, border patrol has dropped off thousands of migrants onto the streets of San Diego.
The Board of Supervisors approved $3 million to support organizations who are helping the migrants connect with their sponsors. Montgomery Steppe says she agrees with that decision.
"If there was not a place for folks to do that then where would they go? They'd be in a lot of different parts of our region without that help and the burden would come upon us anyway, so I believe the county did the right thing," she said.
Reichert also weighed in on the county's decision to allocate funding to aid migrants.
"We need a county supervisor to stand up and say, 'federal government this is your job and your jurisdiction.' These monies were meant for struggling small businesses, our homeless," she said.
District 4 includes parts of the city of San Diego such as Clairemont, North Park and Encanto as well as La Mesa and Lemon Grove.
The special election for the District Four seat will be held on Nov. 7.
WATCH RELATED: County Supervisor candidates speak on housing, homelessness crisis