Community Satisfaction Survey Finds Residents Happy Living in Redwood City, with Affordable Housing and Homelessness Top Concerns

Most residents have a positive view about the quality of life in Redwood City and City services, based on a December 2021 survey conducted by EMC Research, a national full-service opinion research firm. Respondents view Redwood City as a place that is welcoming to all people. Residents continue to express dissatisfaction about the availability of affordable housing and homelessness, as well as traffic.

The Community Satisfaction Survey was developed to measure resident perception and satisfaction with a wide variety of City services, including the City Council's top priority areas, and to identify changes and trends over time. The last Community Satisfaction Survey was completed in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic and focus on policing nationwide. With the 2021 Survey, the City sought feedback on the City's response to COVID-19 and perceptions of public safety and policing.

"It is great to see that the vast majority of residents support the City's response to COVID-19. This speaks to the City Council's leadership and our employees' dedication, creativity and resiliency in these unprecedented times," said Melissa Stevenson Diaz, City Manager of Redwood City. "We value hearing residents' perceptions of City services."

When asked about the single most important issue facing Redwood City, the top response was affordable housing (24% of all respondents), followed by homelessness (14% of all respondents). "Providing housing for everyone in our community is the City Council's top priority," said Giselle Hale, Mayor of Redwood City. "Our Safe RV Parking program is putting residents on a path to permanent housing, and we've applied for $1.8 million grant to address encampments along the Woodside Road/Seaport Blvd and 101 Corridors."

The results found that a majority continue to be happy with the overall safety of the City, the safety of Downtown, police community presence and neighborhood patrols. Almost universally, residents are satisfied with fire protection and emergency medical response and most indicate positive interactions with both Police and Fire departments. The vast majority, regardless of age, ethnicity or income, are comfortable calling the police. The idea of civilian workers responding to emergency calls involving homelessness and mental health is also well received.

"We are encouraged that the community supports involving civilian responders in instances involving mental health and homelessness. We just launched our pilot program, teaming a mental health clinician with police officers responding to emergency calls. In the coming months, we will be establishing a hotline for residents to report non-emergency issues regarding unhoused individuals without going through 9-1-1. We also will be adding civilian homeless outreach workers and will continue to examine alternatives to public safety interaction with homeless residents."

Highlights from the Community Satisfaction Survey include:

• 88% of residents are satisfied with the job Redwood City is doing responding to COVID-19
• 79% of residents remain happy with the quality of life in Redwood City
• 78% of residents agree that Redwood City is a place that is welcoming to all people and more than half (55%) feel there is at least a somewhat strong sense of community
• 73% of residents are satisfied with the job the City is doing providing services
• Residents show high satisfaction with libraries and parks and recreation services; three-quarters are satisfied with programming for youth
• A plurality of respondents cited general safety, safety of walking alone, and low crime and protection as top-of-mind associations with the term "public safety"

Redwood City has a robust and always-evolving community engagement program. In addition to several other tools, one way in which the City receives feedback from the community is through the use of comprehensive and statistically-valid surveys, such as the Community Satisfaction Survey. Survey results allow City staff to improve service delivery in response to community needs, and identify community priorities over time.

The City Council held a Study Session on Monday, January 24 and received a presentation on results from EMC Research. The survey was offered in English and Spanish; six hundred interviews were completed. Respondents were considered a representative sample of the community, and the survey had a margin of error of +/- 4.0 percentage points. The staff report, top-line survey results and video recording from the January 24 City Council meeting (agenda item 8.A) can be found here.

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