With National City's mayoral election just a week away, candidates Marcus Bush and Jose Rodriguez discussed housing costs, homelessness and public safety at a San Diego Rescue Mission forum. At a separate KPBS Monday Midday Edition forum, the two men competing to succeed outgoing Mayor Ron Morrison debated how to address a $13 million structural deficit in a city with an annual general fund budget of roughly $90 million.
The forum, hosted by the San Diego Rescue Mission, came as the nonprofit's National City campus has become a flashpoint in the city's homelessness debate. According to Times of San Diego, the Rescue Mission provides shelter, addiction recovery services and transitional housing, and its National City campus opened despite drawing significant opposition from some neighbors when it was first proposed. Both Bush and Rodriguez said bringing the organization to the city was the right call, with Bush also praising its outreach model for producing measurable results.
Deficit Reignites Fight Over a Business Tax
The budget shortfall has become a central dividing line in the race. Rodriguez supports a proposed business-license tax that could generate up to $7 million in new annual revenue, according to KPBS. Bush, meanwhile, backed delaying the proposal, arguing the City Council needed to engage more with local businesses and reach a compromise before moving forward, the station reported.
At the debate, Bush called for government agencies to better track how tax dollars are spent, saying additional funding alone will not solve homelessness without stronger accountability measures, per the Times of San Diego's account. Rodriguez countered that he could not assess whether current homelessness spending was sufficient without knowing how those funds were being allocated. He also pointed to a broader shift in responsibility, saying local governments increasingly handle duties once supported by greater federal investment in housing and mental health services.
Diverging Paths to Homeownership
Housing affordability dominated much of the exchange. Rodriguez, who said he has spent years knocking on doors throughout National City, identified cracked sidewalks, poor street lighting, deteriorating roads and rising housing costs as the concerns he hears most often from residents. He argued that working families with steady jobs have been priced out of housing and said preserving existing affordable units is as important as building new ones. He also criticized wealthier North County communities for not doing enough to build housing or share regional responsibility, while elsewhere proposing that the city actively purchase land and partner with developers to build homeownership-focused housing, according to inewsource.
Bush has floated a different mix: streamlined permitting for condos and townhomes, a restored first-time homebuyer assistance program, use of city-owned land for homeownership and easier approvals for accessory dwelling units, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. He has argued condos and townhomes offer a better path to homeownership than detached single-family homes in a city as land-limited as National City, a point he made at an earlier candidate forum covered by inewsource. About one in three National City homes are owner-occupied, with renters in the rest, per that outlet's reporting.
Camping Ban and the Limits of Policing
National City adopted a camping ban in 2024, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that year gave local governments broader authority to enforce anti-camping ordinances, according to the Times of San Diego. Bush said he continues to support the ban despite having had initial reservations, telling the forum it works when paired with homeless outreach and support services. Rodriguez said he understands residents' safety concerns near encampments while also stressing the need to treat unhoused people with dignity, and he defended decisions he made in office, saying leadership can sometimes require politically uncomfortable positions.
Bush was more pointed on the role of law enforcement, saying police should not be the city's primary response to homelessness and that officers are not social workers — they need other tools and partners, he said. He called homelessness closely linked to mental health and pushed for expanded detoxification and treatment options, while noting that current laws can make it difficult to intervene when people endanger themselves or others. He praised National City's existing homeless outreach efforts and said long-term solutions require social workers, treatment providers and housing resources working together.
Rodriguez, for his part, emphasized maintaining rapid emergency response times and said adequate police and fire funding remains essential, defending the department even as he called for a proactive city government that addresses problems before residents have to call. He distinguished people living in vehicles because rent is unaffordable from those dealing with severe mental illness or addiction, framing them as needing different responses. Bush, too, backed keeping a local police force, even as he argued for a broader toolkit beyond policing.
A Deficit With a Long History
The city's financial strain over homelessness predates this campaign. National City spent more than $4 million over the prior decade on outreach workers, case management, housing vouchers and related efforts, according to Voice of San Diego, and it estimated spending $400,000 so far in that fiscal year clearing roughly 60 tons of encampment-related debris. Since 2021, police and firefighters have responded to more than 5,000 calls involving homeless residents, the outlet reported, and of 177 homeless people engaged by outreach workers, just 35 were moved into housing.
Countywide, the picture is more mixed. The 2025 Point-in-Time Count found a 7% drop in regionwide homelessness, with San Diego County identifying 9,905 people experiencing homelessness, down from 10,605 the year before, according to the Regional Task Force on Homelessness San Diego. Unsheltered family homelessness fell 72% and unsheltered veteran homelessness dropped 25%, but the number of people living in vehicles rose 7%, and people 55 and older made up one in three unsheltered individuals regionally, the task force found.
Closing Arguments
Bush, a Sweetwater High School graduate who grew up in the National City area, used his closing remarks to warn that publicly challenging other cities can create friction and hinder regional partnerships, urging voters to support collaboration, civility and coalition-building over confrontation. Rodriguez closed by reiterating his call for a proactive city government focused on addressing residents' concerns early, before small problems become bigger ones.
National City voters will decide among Bush, Rodriguez and two other mayoral candidates next week, with the outcome shaping how the city tackles its deficit, its housing shortage and its homelessness response in the years ahead.
