Gubernatorial candidate Matt Mahan speaks at community town hall in San Diego

Today San Jose Mayor and Gubernatorial Candidate Matt Mahan spoke at a townhall.

Mahan is joining a crowded field of candidates vying for a seat as California Governor.

He covered a lot of ground on challenges many San Diegans are facing including affordable housing, homelessness, and economic opportunity. He shared how he plans to tackle these issues if elected.

“We talked about housing costs, downtown vibrancy, public safety issues, getting people into treatment and reducing street homelessness,” he said.

He touted his record for reducing unsheltered homelessness by about one-third, in the past four years. Though some critics have reportedly said it’s an unsustainable solution.

“In San Jose we’re taking an all-of-the-above approach. We’re investing in preventions, where fewer people become homeless,” Mahan said. “We’re investing in shelter and interim housing so that people have places to go if they become homeless, no one should be living outside in a tent, and beyond that we focus on services, getting people graduated to something more permanent and more sustainable.”

Mahan said in most California cities it costs more than $50,000 per year to provide public services to someone experiencing homelessness.

However, in San Jose they have managed to house individuals in tiny homes or a converted motel, with case management and three meals a day, for half of the cost.

“I see this as one of the top issues in the state, and his approach to that topic is similar to his approach to other really big topics in the state like public safety and high quality of life and technology and its future in our state,” Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D) 38^th district said.

Mahan acknowledged homelessness is an issue that would not change overnight, but emphasized that creating safe, managed environments to address the growing crisis could put the state on a path toward improvement.

“We find that for less than 10,00 dollars we can provide rental subsidy to stabilize them and intensive case management to help them bridge to something more sustainable and when we look at our longitudinal data 92 percent of those people are stably housed four years later and not requiring public subsidy,” Mahan said.

Joining him as part of the panel of moderators were District Attorney Summer Stephan and Senator Catherine Blakespear.

Stephan said one of the issues important to her is securing additional funding for Proposition 36, which allows felony charges for certain drug possessions and thefts.

She said she attended today’s town hall because Mahan has prioritized this issue.

“San Jose Mayor Matt Mayhan has had a long record of actually showing the numbers of showing the improvements that were made and we thought it was important for our community to hear about those innovations,” Stephan said.

Mail-in ballots for the governor’s race go out on May 4^th. That’s also when early voting sites open. Election Day is on Tuesday, June 2^nd. The top two vote getters, regardless of party, will advance to the general in November.