Candidates running for Fresno City Council weighed in on how they would best support LGBTQ+, unhoused and other minority communities if elected at a forum last week.
Five of the six candidates running for the three open city council seats in the Nov. 3 general election attended the event at St. Dulce, a community arts and culture space in the Tower District.
Candidates have just five weeks left to pitch themselves to voters ahead of the Nov. 3 General Election. Vote by mail ballots are expected to be sent out in the first week of October.
With over 100 questions submitted, organized by topic demand, the first question asked of candidates was: “How would you support the undocumented, LGBTQ, Black and brown, unhoused, and other most vulnerable populations? What would your office specifically do to support these communities?”
Here’s how the candidates running for Districts 1, 3 and 7 answered the prompt. They each had one minute to speak.
Fresno City Council candidates, from left to right, Naindeep Singh, Joaquin Arambula, Ariana Martinez Lott, Keshia Thomas and Nav Gurm, met at a forum on Sept. 22, 2026, hosted by Dulce Upfront in Fresno. David Taub The Fresno Bee District 1: Rob Fuentes and Naindeep Singh
Law professor and community college board trustee Rob Fuentes was the only city council candidate who did not attend the forum. Fuentes has faced criticism from some community organizers and his opponent for not attending. He said he could not attend because of a prior personal commitment.
The Bee asked Fuentes the same question after the forum, and he responded with the following written statement, which has been edited for length and clarity: “As a councilmember, I will ensure our most vulnerable residents have a voice at City Hall and can access the services they need.”
“For immigrant and undocumented residents, I will build on the City’s Office of Community Affairs and immigrant-community liaison by expanding multilingual outreach, connecting residents with trusted organizations, and supporting access to legal services. For LGBTQ+ residents, I will build on the City’s investments in the Fresno EOC LGBTQ+ Resource Center and grants to LGBTQ+ nonprofits. I will work to expand these investments and strengthen partnerships providing housing, mental-health, and youth services. For our unhoused population, I support a housing-first approach that combines compassion with results. I will expand the HOPE Team, rapid rehousing, shelters, and supportive housing, while strengthening coordination with Fresno County. I will also call for a study of comparable cities to identify what has—and has not—worked in addressing homelessness.”
Naindeep Singh, Central Unified School Board trustee and nonprofit leader, responded to the prompt at the forum with: “Budgets ultimately tell you your values. You look at our budget today, and these aren’t our values. Mayor Mamdani has shown in New York that change is possible, but that means how we’re actually going to make prioritizations. We’re going to absolutely invest in our LGBT, our black and brown, our undocumented communities that have for too long been neglected and disinvested. That’s going to change. We’re going to have a majority, a new majority that’s going to actually take us to a different direction.”
Fresno City Council District 1 candidates Rob Fuentes, left, and Naindeep Singh, right, during a Fresno City Council forum, Friday, April 17, 2026 in downtown Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com District 3: Joaquin Araumbula and Keshia Thomas
Assemblymember Joaquin Araumbula: “There are wonderful examples of programs that have been successful in our communities for a while, such as what’s going on with EFC and our LGBTQ community that is threatened, and I would look towards figuring out how we find long-term funding, either draining the funding or bringing the funding from philanthropy to make sure that they’re standing up rather than covering those programs that have been effective in our documents, and so I’d look to make sure that they have long-term success as a path for us to support our undocumented LGBTQ members, so that we can support them more well.“
Fresno Unified School Board Trustee, Keshia Thomas: “I support one every day. My son, and he’s amazing. But I would support them by, number one, having a community; number two, making sure there’s a budget and a plan that will help those people in their times of need. Because too often we’re underserved as people, period. But then people who are LGBTQ, Black, and brown are even more so underserved. So I think committees again are really important because I don’t know everything, so I need people to plug in.”
Fresno City Council candidates Keshia Thomas, left, and Joaquin Arambula. Fresno Bee File District 7: Nav Gurm and Ariana Martinez-Lott
Attorney and consultant, Nav Gurm: “Number one, I’d say, is continuing to strengthen the office of community affairs. That, I think, is an important part of City Hall and has helped strengthen and connect our communities to City Hall, but that department still needs more funding, and like a lot of the candidates up here said, the budget is a reflection of our values. So making sure we’re putting our budget where our values are at. But also another thing I want to take a look at is procurement at City Hall. How are we investing our dollars in our communities that live here and work here? So when it comes to city contracts, when it comes to city work, making sure that our procurement process also is a reflection of our values and looking at how we can strengthen and support those communities. And the last thing I’ll close with is, you know, for me, I’m not going to always have all the answers, but showing up matters. And you know, I put my cell phone number on my flyer. That’s the same attitude I want to take to City Hall as a council member. So showing up and listening.”
Community organizer, Ariana Martinez-Lott: “So I believe that our budget should reflect the diverse communities that we have in Fresno, so we need to have real investments for these communities. And also, one of the things that we oftentimes hear from elected officials at the at the local level is that, ‘well, I don’t have any influence over that,’ so they don’t speak out when we have attacks against our communities. I think every single one of us needs to use our influence and power to stand with our communities at every single level, so that’s what I’m committed to ensuring: that I don’t use it as a cop out to actually ensure that we’re fighting with our communities in this time, and so that also comes with how we’re using our dollars.”
Fresno City Council District 7 candidates Ariana Martinez Lott, left, and Nav Gurm, take questions at a breakout session at a candidate forum on Sept. 22, 2026, in Fresno. David Taub The Fresno Bee
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