According to a recent poll by the Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley, the majority of Bay Area residents are struggling to afford basic necessities like groceries, gas, child care, housing, and home insurance. Additionally, seven out of ten respondents believe the region’s quality of life has declined in recent years.
The survey revealed that residents are highly skeptical of Silicon Valley’s tech industry and strongly back a prominent November ballot measure aimed at increasing penalties for retail theft and drug-related offenses across the state.
Conducted in August, the poll gathered responses from over 1,650 registered voters in the five core counties of the Bay Area. It followed pandemic-related surges in inflation, crime, and homelessness. Although more recent data suggests these trends have largely slowed or even reversed, the poll shows that many residents continue to find living in the Bay Area challenging.
“It’s a challenging place to live,” said Russell Hancock, president and CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a regional think tank. “The economy here is unforgiving.”
For Seema Kanani, a poll respondent, even a six-figure income barely covers the cost of raising her two teenage children as a single mother. To cut expenses, the clinical social worker has been living with her parents, adult sister, and her son and daughter in the same crowded four-bedroom home in Milpitas where she grew up.
At 45, Kanani and her children were close to moving into their own two-bedroom apartment, but she’s worried about affording the $3,600 monthly rent on top of rising food and gas prices.
“My income will always appear above the poverty line, but it won’t be enough to support us,” she said.
A poll found that 70% of registered voters believe the quality of life in the Bay Area has declined over the past five years, while only 13% think it has improved. Seventeen percent feel it has stayed the same.
Although respondents expressed their dissatisfaction, the percentage of people who said life had worsened was actually 9% lower than when the same question was asked by this news organization and Joint Venture last year. The poll has a margin of error of about 2.5%.
When asked about major challenges facing the region, an overwhelming majority of respondents identified homelessness (97%), housing costs (96%), cost of living (96%), healthcare costs (86%), crime (83%), and childcare costs (82%) as serious issues. Most also noted that over the past year, affording essentials like food and groceries (79%), utilities (73%), transportation and gas (65%), taxes (64%), and housing (62%) has become more difficult.
How state and local leaders address these concerns could have significant effects on population trends, workforce dynamics, school enrollment, and the region’s political landscape. With inflation easing and a more positive economic outlook emerging, the Bay Area seems to be approaching a pivotal moment in its post-pandemic recovery.
