District 5 supervisor candidates share views on homelessness in county

By Gary Warth
Sept. 30, 2026

Accountability, enforcement, housing and mental health treatment were among the themes discussed by candidates running for the County Board of Supervisors in a forum on homelessness Sept. 30.

San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones and Oceanside resident Kyle Krahel, a former chief of staff and district director for Rep. Mike Levin, will face off for the District 5 seat on Nov. 3. The two candidates sat down with San Diego Rescue Mission CEO Donnie Dee to answer questions about how the county should respond to homelessness at the SDRM-organized event at North Coast Church in Vista.

Jones brought up accountability several times in her responses to questions from Dee, while Krahel said the county needs to step up more in its role on behavioral health and homelessness.

Asked to evaluate the county’s success in addressing homelessness, both candidates said the board could be doing a better job.

“It can’t just be up to our cities like Oceanside, San Marcos and Encinitas to deal with homelessness on their own,” Krahel said, adding that the county should do more enforcement.

Jones said the county is not spending money “on the right things,” and she praised the faith-based approach of San Diego Rescue Mission and East County Transitional Living Center as well as Solutions for Change, a nonprofit that also does not accept public funds because it does not follow housing-first guidelines.

“What we’re doing is not compassionate,” she said. “We’re leaving them out there to die, and putting the roof over their head is not the solution.”

Citing a statistic that one-third of all foster youth aging out of the system experience homelessness, Dee asked the candidates how they would help those youths stay housed.

Jones said it was vital that the county keep open San Pasqual Academy, a school for foster youth run by the county, and she noted that San Marcos had worked with an affordable housing developer to set aside nine units for transitional-age youth in a planned project. “I know it’s not a ton, but it’s a start,” she said.

Krahel praised CSU San Marcos and local community colleges for connecting with San Pasqual Academy students but said the county could have a more active role in connecting foster youth with assistance.

“The county can really do more in terms of actually connecting these folks, providing that safe hand-holding through those early formative years when they’re just getting out,” he said. “I think that’s the key to them not getting folks off the street.”

Asked about the county’s role in solving homelessness, Krahel said a large portion of its $9.1 billion budget goes toward behavioral health and homeless services, but it hasn’t delivered results.

“I think that the county has shirked that responsibility for far too long,” he said. “I think it’s been left to our cities to have to deal with this, and so you do have a place like Oceanside spending tons of money on the navigation shelter.”

Krahel said the county should provide shelter beds where there are none because the current situation leads to one city getting homeless people from another.

Jones said the county spends millions of dollars on behavioral health and other services to help people but could use more accountability.

“The problem is, we don’t have any metrics as to where that money is going and how it’s actually working,” she said, explaining her plan to have a dashboard for the public to see.

“The dashboard will then bring accountability — true accountability — to find out what we’re investing in that’s working,” Jones said.

Addressing Dee’s question about how to improve the public’s perception of the Board of Supervisors’ response to homelessness, Jones again said a dashboard and accountability were needed, and she pointed to her record in San Marcos as a reason why she could bring change.

“Sixty percent of the county thinks we’re on the wrong track because we are,” she said. “I’m that change. I am the person who gets out there. I roll up my sleeves. I do whatever needs to be done.”

Krahel again said the county should take more of a lead in addressing homelessness, and he had a plan to get area jurisdictions working together.

“I want to reconstitute a bipartisan mayoral task force for North County when I’m elected, so we can bring together our cities to work closely with the county,” he said. “I think right now we’ve got too much of an adversarial relationship where folks don’t agree that the county is going to help them, so then they back away and don’t actually work together.”

Both candidates said they supported expanding the state’s efforts to help homeless people with mental illness, including through mental institutions.

“I do think that we need more investment in actual institutional settings for folks who are just never going to be able to be independent,” Krahel said.

“They do need our help, and it’s not compassionate for them to be on the streets and dying at such a high rate,” Jones said.

“There are some people that are unfortunately going to need to be in a mental institution, but I think we shouldn’t call it that,” Jones added. “We should come up with some other name for it.”

Krahel also suggested using another name, such as permanent supportive housing, rather than “mental institution.”

Both candidates referred to their experience as reasons why they were running for the board.

“The county needs me because of all of the things that I’ve been able to bring to the city of San Marcos,” Jones said, citing a low crime rate, a Class 1 fire agency and job growth.

“I think that the hallmark of who I am in office is that I care,” she said of her 20 years as a San Marcos elected official. “I do the hard work. I work harder than most people because I really do want to help people.”

Krahel said he would bring to the board the perspective of someone who worked in a small local business as well as someone who worked 10 years as the chief of staff for a member of Congress.

While working in Levin’s office, Krahel said he helped bring millions of dollars to fund the Oceanside Navigation Center, and the congressman’s office partnered with county officials to help reduce veteran homelessness while Levin was on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.