In a district that has far fewer homeless people than some other areas of San Francisco, three candidates for supervisor say officials should treat the crisis as a regional problem and consider temporarily housing people outside of the city.

Two of those candidates for the District Two seat, Schuyler Hudak and John Dennis, said they would go as far as considering building Navigation Centers outside of San Francisco, while current Supervisor Catherine Stefani proposed expanding agreements with surrounding cities to find beds for people coming out of substance abuse treatment programs.

A fourth candidate, Nick Josefowitz, said he wouldn’t support “shipping people out on a temporary basis” to other cities.

Dennis doesn’t support opening a Navigation Center in his district. Instead, he said, San Francisco should issue a request for proposals to locate them outside of the city.

“We are competing for the most expensive real estate in the world to put up some of these Navigation Centers,” said Dennis, a developer, investor and the only Republican candidate. “If we can’t do it here, we’ve got to put them someplace else.”

Hudak, founder of video startup Cor, said she would first support opening a Navigation Center within the district, which includes Pacific Heights, the Marina and Cow Hollow, but said San Francisco can’t solve the homeless crisis on its own.

She mentioned the possibly of building facilities for the homeless on San Francisco-owned property outside of the city.

“We need to start collaborating with other counties and thinking about this as a regional issue, because it truly is,” said Hudak, whose campaign focuses on mental health treatment as a way to address homelessness.

The issue of where to place shelters has long troubled city supervisors, who must consider opposition from some constituents and demands that districts with lower homeless populations shoulder some of the burden.

There are currently two Navigation Centers in the Mission, and one each in Dogpatch and Mid-Market — and the mayor’s office is scouting plots of land where more can be opened. The centers allow the homeless to bring in their partners and pets and help them transition into permanent housing through on-site services.

“Homelessness is one of those issues that everyone wants solved in their neighborhood, but they want it solved somewhere else,” said Jeff Kositsky, the director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “I really appreciate when supervisors and other community leaders come to us with a willingness to provide services to address homelessness.”

Stefani said she would support opening a Navigation Center in District Two and also proposed expanding on a longtime city practice of sending people in need to available facilities outside of San Francisco.

“If someone is exiting a treatment program and there is no place for them to go in San Francisco, my feeling is there is no reason why we shouldn’t be working with the surrounding counties and ask them, ‘Do you have a clean and sober living environment where this person could go?’” Stefani said.

Josefowitz, a BART director and founder of a renewable energy company, also supports opening a District Two Navigation Center. He said the only way he would consider moving people out of San Francisco is if it were into permanent housing.

The field to represent District Two is made up of three candidates with private sector experience — Hudak, Dennis and Josefowitz — and Stefani, who has been in City Hall for several years as county clerk and as a legislative aide to former Supervisors Mark Farrell and Michela Alioto-Pier. She was appointed to the seat seven months ago after Farrell was tapped to become interim mayor in January.

In confronting homelessness and other issues, Stefani said at a recent Chronicle editorial board meeting that experience counts.

“I’ve proven myself as someone who gets things done,” she said.

But her competitors argue the current occupants of City Hall — including her, by implication — have failed to alleviate San Francisco’s most pressing issues. Addressing homelessness, housing and public safety, they said, would benefit from the ideas of someone from the outside.

While the crime and homeless population in District Two is much lower than in other districts, the candidates said the issue has seemed to get worse over the past few years. They said residents are frustrated at the constant car break-ins around touristy areas such as Lombard Street, and have also become jittery after a woman and her children were robbed at gunpoint at the Palace of Fine Arts in July.

“We are drifting into something that reminds me of the public housing project that I grew up in Jersey City,” Dennis said. “And the city seems unable to deal with the issues systemically.”

Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani