Poll reveals struggles of Sacramento-area families
SACRAMENTO – A new poll shows a staggering percentage of people living in the capital region are concerned about how they are going to make ends meet.
A new public opinion poll focused on livability shows that 69 percent of residents living in six neighboring counties are most concerned about homelessness. The counties include Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba.
The poll happened during the height of inflation in mid-summer and just a little under 2,000 people responded to the poll, according to the poll researchers.
"Where I live there is definitely a lot of homelessness and there's a road that I take where it's all like homeless people," said Angel Quio, a resident of Sacramento.
The cost of housing was a close second.
"One thing that really jumped out of us is the disheartening nature of the data that we collected," said Evan Schmidt, CEO of Valley Vision.
The inaugural event, Livability Summit, hopes to address some of the most pressing quality-of-life issues. The non-profit group Valley Vision is dedicated to making the capital region the most livable area in the U.S. It partnered with Sacramento State's Institute for Social Research to conduct the poll.
Findings show almost a third or more of residents are struggling to afford what they need to live like food, housing, and transportation.
At a time when the region is booming, what is behind the lack of affordability?
"The folks that basically work here – get their incomes from the Sacramento region – they're finding the homes here in Sacramento are even more unaffordable," Dr. Sanjay Varshney said, a finance professor at Sacramento State.
Historically low wages in Sacramento play a role. Other factors include inbound migration from Bay Area transplants and the underproducing of new homes to meet demand.
Yet, many respondents noted the area is a good place to raise a family and begin a career.
Valley Vision believes now is the time to bridge the gap between the perks and affordability hurdles.
"Despite having some challenging data that we're looking at we're at a moment right now where we have the opportunity to make a lot of change in our communities," Schmidt said.
