BERKELEY — Seven mayoral candidates at a forum this week broadly agreed on the specific challenges Berkeley faces, but differed on what should — and can — be done to tackle them.

Topping the list of challenges were high rents and the scarcity of affordable housing, homelessness, deteriorating infrastructure, public safety, the environment, transportation and the announced closing of Alta Bates hospital.

Appearing at Wednesday’s forum before a full gallery at the North Berkeley Senior Center were Naomi Pete, Kriss Worthington, Ben Gould, Laurie Capitelli, Mike Lee, Bernt Wahl, and Jesse Arreguin. An eighth candidate, Zachary RunningWolf, was absent.

The event, sponsored by the Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers, was intended to shed light on the critical social justice issues the city faces, according to moderator George Lippman, chairman of the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission.

Pete, who noted she previously ran for mayor in 1982 and 1986, said Berkeley’s image needs to be spruced up but offered few details how to accomplish that.

Worthington, a sitting councilman, said action is more important than talk, and that he had initiated a couple of thousand of council actions during his tenure. He touted his record of appointing Asians, Latinos and African Americans to city commissions, saying it was sharp contrast to some other council members. He said the city needs “truly affordable” housing, not just for people making between 50 and 80 percent of median household income, and that the city should incentivize nonprofits to build housing. He urged passage of Measure U1, which would increase the business license tax on owners of five or more residential units, and urged defeat of a rival measure, DD, backed by landlords.

Gould, a graduate student, advocated making it easier to build housing at all income levels, and revamping the city’s 10-year-old Climate Action Plan to include an emphasis on reducing the use of natural gas. He urged support for Measure T1, which would authorize $100 million of infrastructure and facilities bonds. He also urged looking at modular housing, and proposed relaxing some parking requirements in exchange for building affordable housing, an idea he credited to Councilwoman Lori Droste. Gould also said the city should explore using affordable housing funds to build student residences, and that the city should work with UC Berkeley on the student housing shortage.

Capitelli, a sitting councilman and a real estate broker, emphasized his roots in Berkeley that go back to his grandparents, and noted his earlier career as a schoolteacher. He cited achievement gaps in schools among the city’s pressing problems, and touted the city’s soda tax, which he worked to pass in 2014. He suggested looking into the use of eminent domain to deal with vacant buildings kept off the market and to put them back into service through nonprofits. He urged streamlining the building permit process, which he said can take as long as seven years, to encourage housing construction. Capitelli also said Berkeley has an “extraordinary” police department but that it it is being asked to do too much.

Mike Lee, a community volunteer, summoned the tradition of the Gray Panthers to “put words into action” and “stand up together” to solve the city’s myriad challenges. He said he and Capitelli are working on “tiny homes” as a partial solution to homelessness and rising rents. Lee also said the city gives away too much money to developers through low mitigation fees, and that the police department needs to be tougher on racial profiling.

Wahl, described as a scientist, entrepreneur and professor, says he is a problem-solver, not a politician, and that he tackles problems like an engineer. He advocated using technology as part of a knowledge- and information-based approach to problems, such as the departure of businesses, especially startups, from Berkeley, and suggested looking at Singapore as an example of a community that deals intelligently with housing and limited space issues.

Arreguin, a sitting councilman, spoke of his pre-council experience on the Housing Advisory Commission, Rent Stabilization Board, Zoning Adjustments Board and Planning Commission, and vowed to represent residents, not special interests and developers. He lamented “the changing face of our city” and its loss of economic and cultural diversity, said he had introduced the Affordable Housing Mitigation Fee at the City Council, and urged passage of Measure U1, the council-sponsored business tax measure. Arreguin criticized the council for passing laws that “criminalize” homelessness, and advocated instead to provide housing and services, such as expanded shelters and transitional housing.