Having the position of mayor entails many responsibilities and requires action on many issues affecting the city and its constituents. Mayor Kevin Faulconer is no exception; his primary focus during his mayoral tenure has been to combat the homelessness situation in the City of San Diego.
Mayor Faulconer spoke on the topic at the California GOP convention in Indian Wells earlier this month. In his speech, Faulconer articulated ideas and advantageous prospects to help California Republicans stand up against the Democratic majority that is present in the state.
In regards to the specific topic of homelessness, his most impactful advice came in the simplest form: create ideas instead of just blaming others. Essentially, Republicans need to work on plausible solutions instead of broadcasting the failures of the Democrats.
In order for effective progress to be made, according to Faulconer, California Republicans need to reiterate the importance of leading by example in places where there is strong Republican leadership. For example, Mayor Faulconer’s implementation of concrete solutions such as increasing spending towards homelessness and modifying code to obtain homeless housing easily has resulted in significant progress on the issue.
In addition, Mayor Faulconer has fostered an increase in city trash clean-ups along with establishing a Neighborhood Policing Division in order to show the connection between quality-of-life crimes and homelessness.
By utilizing different types of solutions, substantial results have been produced for the city of San Diego. The biggest accomplishment being the decrease of homelessness by six percent in the last year alone.
Lastly, at the convention, Mayor Faulconer left closing remarks that challenged California Republicans to be proactive about their potential solutions and being willing to express them on a statewide level. It is evident that Mayor Faulconer is committed to improving the homelessness issue within San Diego, but also to the success of Republicans throughout the state of California.
Photo by Josh Esh
