Poll: High Crime, Housing, Homelessness Have Bay Area Residents In A Bad Mood

CONCORD (KPIX) – As the Bay Area comes out of the pandemic, many in the region are in a grumpy mood apparently, accoding to this year’s Bay Area Council Poll.

This is the most dissatisfied Bay Area residents have been since 2014 and strangely the pandemic is the least of their concerns. The online poll says housing and homelessness are the major issues.

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Michael Schwartz from Concord agrees.

“It’s definitely not as good as it used to be,” he says.

Schwartz didn’t take the poll but he agrees with many of the results.

“I’ve lived in Concord for 25 years and Covid has made everything terrible. The homeless has gotten a lot worse,” says Schwartz.

READ: 2022 Bay Area Council Poll

The Bay Area Council, which is a public policy advocacy organization, conducted the poll. It found that 64% of residents feel the region is heading in the wrong direction. That’s a record jump of 14%.

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Nearly half of those polled are considering leaving the area.

“I would say cost of living is definitely number one just because of inflation as it is nowadays and we see wages not really following the trend,” says Shay Grant of Contra Costa County.

Along with the housing issues, the third biggest concern on many people’s minds is the crime.

“The thing I’m seeing nowadays is the crime and all the things people are doing, the craziness,” says Steve Barragan of Antioch. “It’s sad and police don’t seem to be doing anything about it, arresting people. People out of control, robbing stores and walking out casually. It’s pretty bad.”

The Bay Area Council will now use the data to hopefully draft public policy to improve the quality of life and upliftt the region’s gloomy outlook.

Rufus Jeffris is a spokesperson for the organization.

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“It’s definitely taken a negative turn,” he says. We’re just hopeful and optimistic as we further put Covid behind us, hopefully we can make some progress.”