District 4 County Supervisor Candidate Omar Passons Has Comprehensive Homeless Plan

The primary is June 5

Democrat Omar Passons, an attorney who has worked in public health and community development, is running against four other candidates for the county supervisor seat being vacated by Republican Ron Roberts.

Passons has many ideas about how to solve San Diego’s homeless epidemic.

It’s an area of personal experience for Passons. He was in the foster system as a child, and his birth mother struggled with homelessness and mental illness.

“I grew up in a foster home in Clairemont, I went to elementary school in Encanto in Southeastern San Diego and have been a homeowner in North Park for many years, and that breadth of diversity and experience is important for this job,” he told Politically Speaking’s Gene Cubbison Sunday.

He said the county has a huge role in helping the homeless population, “which is why we released our Hope4Homeless plan with real depth about the issues.” The plan includes homeless outreach staff to help people access resources, building housing and analyzing recidivism.

“When we released our Hope4Homeless plan we said the county could responsibly spend upwards of $1 million on renovating and rehabilitating dilapidated homes and structures for homeless as one part of a comprehensive system solution,” he said. Sixty percent of the unsheltered homeless people live in the 4th District, according to Passons, “so it’s a big issue for everybody’s quality of life … Homeless people are human beings, not just abstractions.”

He says while some politicians are focused on the “bright light in the moment,” his plan involves substantive system change. “In StrongStarts4All, our youth plan, we recognize that the only way that you make a longterm change is by fundamentally altering things like youth mental health services and opportunity for early education and care when children are very, very young that sets them on a course towards better opportunity and away from homelessness.”

Although it is a nonpartisan position, Passons is one of four Democrats (Nathan Fletcher, Ken Malbrough and Lori Saldana are the others) who are running against Republican and former District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. He doesn’t think his party affiliation will hurt his chances for winning a seat held by a Republican.

“I am a Democrat and proud of the work people do fighting for homeless, for children, for seniors, over a quarter of a million of which can’t pay their basic bills in San Diego County,” he said. “We have big issues and so from my perspective being a Democrat is important, but what’s more important in this context is being able to work with the four Republicans who are members of the Board of Supervisors.

He said his vision is to work with the exclusively Republican Board of Supervisors and “make San Diego not the best place for a shiny building, but the best place to raise a family, to have children, to support your parents as they grow old.”

District 4 includes Alta Vista, Broadway Heights, Chollas View, Emerald Hills, Encanto, Greater Skyline Hills, Jamacha, Lincoln Park, Lomita Village, North Bay Terrace, Oak Park, O'Farrell, Paradise Hills, Redwood Village, Rolando Park, South Bay Terrace, Valencia Park, and Webster.

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