Homelessness, housing costs are top concerns

How bad is the Bay Area’s homeless problem? So bad that not even a year under the grip of the COVID pandemic could remove homelessness as the most serious issue facing the region, according to the 2021 Bay Area Council Poll. The poll also found interesting shifts in attitudes about housing and traffic over the past year. Attitudes about the overall direction of the Bay Area remain largely unchanged from last year, with 26% of respondents saying the region is on the right track, half saying the wrong track and 23% uncertain. Economically, the poll found reason for optimism. While 40% of respondents believe the economy is doing worse than it was six months ago, 52% expect the economy will be doing somewhat better (35%) or much better (17%) six months from now.

Homelessness ranked highest among a set of issues that cause Bay Area residents concern. According to the Bay Area Council Poll, 60% of respondents said they are very concerned about homelessness, with housing coming in a distant second at 44% very concerned, followed by climate change at 40%, wildfires and income inequality both at 38%, and racial inequality at 36%. Homelessness also topped a list of the Bay Area’s most important problems in an open-ended question, with 24% of poll respondents naming it as the Bay Area’s most important problem ahead of housing costs/availability (16%) and COVID (14%). In 2015, just 3% of Bay Area Council Poll respondents identified homelessness as the region’s most important problem.