Santa Barbara City Councilman Oscar Gutierrez said Monday night that the Westside needs more attention, but he’s been working to make that happen.

“This isn’t like ordering a pizza,” Gutierrez said. “It’s not going to show up to your door in 30 minutes. It is going to take a while because it has to be planned out.”

Gutierrez was one of seven City Council candidates who spoke at an election forum Monday night held by the League of Women Voters of Santa Barbara.

The forum was split into two parts and was moderated by Shane Stark, former Santa Barbara County Counsel.

For the first hour, District 2 candidate Terra Taylor and incumbent Mike Jordan answered questions about homelessness, rent control, law enforcement, housing and the U.S. Constitution. District 2 includes Santa Barbara’s Mesa and parts of the Westside neighborhood.

For the second hour, Stark rushed through only a few questions for the rest of the field: District 3 candidates Oscar Gutierrez, the incumbent, and Tony Becerra, and District 1 candidates Alejandra Gutierrez, the incumbent, Wendy Santamaria and Cruzito Herrera Cruz. District 1 includes the Eastside neighborhood and District 3 includes the Westside neighborhood of Santa Barbara.

Oscar Gutierrez, who has been in office since 2018, touted his responsiveness to the community, growing up on the Westside, and his advocacy for government transparency. Becerra, a martial arts instructor who has trained generations of families at his Westside dojo, said he would offer a fresh perspective.

The candidates expressed the strongest opinions on the issue of rent control, an idea that has community advocates have pushed to stop escalating rents in Santa Barbara. Some activists have suggested the city pass a 2% cap on rent increases per year.

“I have been very vocal that I don’t think rent control, a rent cap, rent stabilization is the answer to our housing crisis,” Alejandra Gutierrez said. “It is unsustainable.”

She said rent control is a temporary solution.

“Every city in California where rent control has been implemented hasn’t solved their housing crisis,” she said. “It has unintended consequences. In theory it sounds great, but when you put into practice, it’s not the solution.”

Becerra took his opposition to rent control a step further.

“It creates some slums,” Becerra said. “People that invest in their properties no longer can upkeep them. It scares away new investors. We talk about getting people to come in and invest, how are you going to get people to invest if they know you can’t break even on their investments?”

Santamaria supports a cap in rent increases.

“I am looking out for the families,” Santamaria said. “We are seeing a massive amount of people of color already exiting our city and there is no local rent cap. To say that a rent cap is the thing that is going to gentrify our neighborhoods is highly misleading.”

Herrera Cruz said the city needs tenant protections.

“The current protections that we have don’t go far enough to protect the renters,” Cruz said. “This would improve the homelessness crisis by preventing evictions of the low-income, extremely low-income individuals in the community.”

Oscar Gutierrez said that residents in the community tell him that they want rent stabilization.

“Being a public servant, as being an elected representative, I am here to do the will of the people, and that’s what the will of the people are asking for.”

The forum was the first public opportunity to hear from Taylor, who is challenging Jordan. Both Taylor and Jordan said they oppose rent control.

Taylor said she opposes rent control and that there are other ways to address the housing crisis. She said the availability of short-term vacation rentals affects the housing market negatively. She said the city should consider a tax on vacant rentals for more than six months.

Taylor, a former mortgage broker, said rent control hurts owners who might own a second property for a retirement income.

“When we think about rent control sometimes, we can actually put someone like that in a situation where they can’t pay their taxes, or they can’t cover their maintenance costs,” Taylor said.

Jordan said the answer to rising rents is to build more housing and increase the amount of affordable units in large projects.

“Rent control or a hard rent cap in my research or experience does not lead to the results you want,” Jordan said. “It creates problems with a maintenance, it ends up subsequently in future years leading up to less rental units available than what you started with.”

Monday’s forum was held at the Community Environmental Council’s downtown Hub, 1219 State St., and was livestreamed by TV Santa Barbara.

Read more stories about the Nov. 5 election here.