What homelessness solutions do Fresno City Council District 3 candidates favor?
Expanding mental health and addiction services, creating more permanent and affordable housing options and expanding shelter capacity are a few ideas Fresno City Council District 3 candidates have pitched to address the city’s unhoused community and reimagine a largely ineffective anti-camping ordinance.
The ordinance, passed in fall 2024 by the current council, bans sleeping, sitting, lying or storing personal property in public spaces, allowing for arrest as it encourages diversion into drug treatment and provisional housing over criminal charges.
Almost two years later, Fresno’s law is widely viewed as ineffective at reducing homelessness, with minimal participation in treatment diversions among those targeted in its “treatment first” program for those arrested as a diversion to avoid criminal charges.
The Bee recently asked each of the District 3 Fresno City Council candidates in the June 2 primary election to answer a series of questions related to their campaign and positions on local issues, including homelessness. We also hosted a series of candidate forums and recorded them. Those videos, including one focused on how the candidates answered the homeless policy question, are posted at fresnobee.com.
The slate of candidates includes: tradesman Charles Montoya, Fresno County School Board Trustee Fernando Alvarez, Fresno County Department of Health administrative case worker Jalen Swank, Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula, Fresno Unified Trustee Keshia Thomas, real estate broker and contractor Larry Burrus and crisis response manager Tiffany Apodaca.
Fresno’s District 3 covers the southwest areas of Fresno, including downtown, Chinatown, the Tower District, and Edison and Lowell neighborhoods. It also includes most of the city’s industrial parks in south Fresno.
Read The Bee’s Fresno City Council District 3 voter guide here.
Here’s what homelessness solutions Fresno City Council District 3 candidates favor, in alphabetical order
Fernando Alvarez
“Fresno’s homelessness crisis requires a balanced, results-driven approach that prioritizes both compassion and accountability. We need to expand access to mental health services, substance abuse treatment, and transitional housing, so people have a real pathway off the streets, not just temporary shelter.
A key part of this effort is stronger cross-sector collaboration between the city, our faith-based organizations, and the nonprofit groups already doing incredible work on the ground. These groups are closest to the issue, and we should be supporting and partnering with them to maximize impact.
At the same time, we must ensure our public spaces remain safe and accessible. That means better coordination to connect individuals with services while maintaining clean neighborhoods.
Prevention is just as important, supporting workforce development and keeping people housed before they fall into homelessness. This requires consistent leadership and solutions that deliver real, measurable results.”
Tiffany Apodaca
“Many individuals experiencing homelessness are also facing untreated mental health challenges, substance use disorders, or deep trauma. Simply providing housing without addressing those root causes is not enough to create long-term stability. I support a more comprehensive approach that combines housing with strong, coordinated services; mental health care, addiction treatment, job training, and ongoing case management.
We also need greater accountability and collaboration across systems; law enforcement, healthcare, and community organizations, so that individuals don’t fall through the cracks. Our goal should be not just to house people, but to help them heal, rebuild, and stay housed.”
Joaquin Arambula
“People deserve to live with dignity. As an Assemblymember, and as the former budget chair of the (state) Health and Human Services Subcommittee, I oversaw the dollars that were allocated to provide health care and social services for people to help alleviate the homelessness crisis. Cal-AIM, advancing and innovating Medi-Cal, created Community Supports and Enhanced Care Management, for the Medi-Cal patients with complex needs.
Housing has to be coupled with mental health, substance abuse and other wrap around services that will ensure people are supported and remain housed. Medi-Cal can pay for up to 6 months of transitional housing as just the first step — the ultimate goal must include the creation of more permanent and affordable housing solutions for people. I support building more housing, creating sustainable and good paying jobs, and ensuring that there is accountability and transparency on how funding is being used.”
Keshia Thomas
“One of the greatest challenges to solving Fresno’s homeless crisis has been City/County cooperation. The city has made some effort on the homeless issue, but for too long the county has not been on board and the county is where much of the social service dollars reside. Some of the homeless population have mental health and substance abuse issues that are not going to be easy fixes. They need a lot of support. However, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors is changing, which brings a greater opportunity for the City of Fresno to partner with the county.
The next part of this is housing, if we do not want people to get forced out of housing, we must have affordable housing and housing prices have skyrocketed in recent years. The first part of the solution is just more housing, all housing, in a supply and demand economy the more housing that is produced, the more it will ease prices. Fresno City’s tight growth policies have been great in producing more infill, and creating more efficient use of space, but this alone will not solve our housing shortages. It is the city’s job to ensure that all housing is on the table, we need to subsidize infill where we can, and ensure low-income housing is on the table. In places like West Fresno where I live, we could critically use some newer developments.
Then the last element is we need more beds in the shelters, there should be a bed available for every person who wants one, and that is often not the case.”
Charles Montoya
“Significant resources have been poured into helping solve this problem, between what the state and city have done. I think that in many cases, we need to give time to see the changes. What we need to do is reinforce organizations that help people who are unhoused. We also need to build more housing, especially in District 3.”
Jalen Swank
“As our city continues to develop, the cost of living rises, but our wages remain. Families are living paycheck to paycheck and sharing living spaces to stay afloat.
While it is important to continue building market rate housing and affordable housing, it is my priority to help stabilize residents so that our neighbors can stay in their homes. Rent control policies, more property tax exemptions for the retired/elderly and disabled, and stricter vacancy control policies can help solve that issue.
In addition, when building affordable housing, adding language requiring light overnight security patrols and case management assigned to each unit will assist in providing resources for residents to feel safe, furthering stability and growth so that they can reach their next milestones, offering a new place for someone in need.”
District 3 candidate Larry Burrus did not respond to The Bee’s candidate questionnaire.