|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Crime and public safety remain top of mind for Harris County residents, but locals are increasingly looking toward the future impacts of climate change, artificial intelligence and the transition to alternative energy sources, according to this year’s Kinder Houston Area Survey.
More than one in four surveyed residents cited crime and public safety as their top concern in the 43rd annual poll, which sampled about 5,350 people. Housing affordability and the economy trailed slightly behind, with roughly one in five ranking each as their top concern. Traffic and infrastructure rounded out the top five concerns, with each approaching a 10 percent vote share.
“In some ways, it tells us that we still have this ongoing, continuing difficulty with the present and those day-to-day things that people are challenged by,” said Dan Potter, senior researcher at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, which generates the survey.
It’s the second straight year crime and public safety has weighed heavily on the minds of survey respondents, and the number of Harris County residents listing it as the biggest problem in the Kinder Houston Area Survey has been on the rise since 2020.
The survey attempts to measure the attitudes and perspectives of Harris County residents by asking them to answer a series of questions, some of which have appeared on the survey since its inception.
Crime and public safety
Crime and safety was the most commonly cited “biggest problem” in 19 of 30 neighborhood areas in the county, according to researchers.
At the same time, the rate of offenses has dropped over the past years for several types of crime, including homicide and sexual assault, according to data compiled by the Harris County Office of County Administration. Some types of property crime, including auto theft and larceny, haven’t budged much during that time.
While concern about crime and safety remains high, survey respondents generally did not express dissatisfaction with local law enforcement agencies.
Nearly 50 percent of respondents gave them a “fair” rating, 30 percent gave them a “good” rating, and 6 percent gave them an “excellent” rating. About 16 percent of residents said local police were doing a “poor” job serving and protecting their neighborhood.
Housing
Housing affordability is an emerging issue, according to respondents.
For the second straight year, more than one in five survey respondents identified the cost of housing as the biggest problem facing the Houston area.
The report’s authors note that Houston has historically been one of the most affordable areas for housing in the country. But between 2011 and 2022, the median home sale price in the Houston area has nearly doubled, rising from $165,000 to $315,000.
Housing costs also rank as the top longest-term concern for Houston-area residents, according to the survey.
Economy
The economy remains the third-most commonly identified issue, with 21 percent picking it, though the number is down from 26 percent last year.
Several indicators show that many residents still face challenging economic and financial circumstances, the report’s authors say.
Nearly 30 percent of respondents said their personal financial situation has worsened in the past few years, while 27 percent said their situation had improved. Nearly half said their situation was largely unchanged.
In addition, the percentage of residents who said they could not come up with $400 to pay for an unexpected emergency rose from 42 percent to 46 percent in the past year  — the highest-reported level since 2019, when the institute first asked Houston-area residents.
Public education
Support for public education among survey respondents has never been higher, with 70 percent saying schools need more funding.
Harris County residents were first asked by the Kinder Institute in the early 1990s whether public schools had enough or needed more money to provide a high-quality education. Responses at the time were split evenly.
The near-equal divide remained until about 2009, when residents began to say additional funding was needed.
Climate change
Climate change is increasingly becoming a concern for many Harris County residents, according to the survey.
Nearly 60 percent of respondents said they were either “worried,” “very worried,” or “extremely worried” about its impact on the region. The survey also found a large majority of residents think it likely that climate change will have a negative impact on their health and well-being in the next 10 years.
When asked who should be doing more (or less) to address climate change, about 70 percent of Harris Count residents said local officials, state officials, federal agencies, and large businesses and corporations should all be doing more.
Energy transition
Alternative energy sources hold strong support among survey respondents. Nearly three-quarters said Houston should prioritize developing technologies for the production of alternative energy sources like wind, solar and hydrogen. Moreover, the vast majority of respondents said the transition to alternative energy is “necessary” for Houston’s economic future.
But that strong support is coupled with concerns about the state’s energy sector. Three-quarters of respondents said they are “worried,” “very worried,” or “extremely worried” about its reliability. A similar proportion are “worried,” “very worried,” or “extremely worried” about the Texas grid being largely cut off from the rest of the country.
“It’s an acknowledgement that you can make all the investments in the world you want to alternative energy and the energy transition. But if you are still relying on the grid that is not capable of distributing it and getting it to where it needs to go, what are we doing?” Potter said.
Artificial intelligence
Almost half of respondents expect AI to have a major impact on the local economy. When asked whether the impact in the next five years will be good, bad, or mixed, Harris County residents offered a mixed response, with about 40 percent of thinking AI will equally hurt and help.
Despite the potential for AI to eliminate some jobs entirely, survey respondents did not see their jobs as threatened. Nearly half of those currently working said they are not at all worried their jobs will be eliminated by AI in the next 5 years. Another 33 percent said they were a little worried, and less than 20 percent were either worried, very worried, or extremely worried.
About 29 percent of respondents said they had seen, read, or heard about AI “a lot,” 37 percent said they had “some” exposure to it, 27 percent said they had “a little” exposure, and about 7 percent said they had seen, heard, or read “nothing at all” about it.
Despite concerns over what the future might hold, those who answered the survey appear more focused on immediate risks.
Asked what they think the “biggest problem” Houston will face in 20 years, respondents gave the same answer when asked what is currently the biggest problem: housing affordability and crime and safety. The third most common problem for the future was pollution, environment, and flooding — 15 percent of residents identified this as the region’s biggest looming challenge, three times as many as cited it as the “biggest problem” facing the Houston area in 2024.
The Kinder Foundation, which supports the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, is also a financial supporter of the Houston Landing. It had no influence on decisions related to the reporting and publishing of this article. The Landing’s ethics policy and list of financial supporters are available online.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print.
