Sentinel staff report–
Results are in for the city’s latest “FlashVote” survey of Citrus Heights residents, with respondents indicating their top concerns include safety, commercial vacancies and homelessness.
A total of 456 participants responded to the survey between Aug. 16-18, using the city’s new 48-hour “FlashVote” system. Topping the list of concerns was “physical safety and security,” which 84.3% of residents ranked as “most important” on a list of nine options. Second up was the “amount of commercial vacancies and blight,” followed closely by “appearance of neighborhoods.”
While homelessness was not listed among the nine choices for respondents to select, a total of 96 people selected an “other” option, with half of the comments listed mentioning homelessness. “Homeless problem,” “The homeless camping anywhere they want and leaving messy trash behind for someone to clean up,” “the blight homeless create,” were among the comments entered.
Lowest on the rankings were “availability of jobs,” community events, and “the range and cost of available housing options.”
A followup question asked respondents to list how they would allocate $15.6 million in funds the city is receiving from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. The top ranked choice was city infrastructure (including roads and sidewalks) at 27.7%, followed by “addressing homeless problems,” with 22.9%, and improving neighborhood safety, at 17.8%.
Homelessness again dominated many of the responses in a final, open-ended question asking for “comments or suggestions about how the City of Citrus Heights can use ARPA funding to best serve the community as a whole.”
One respondent wrote: “I don’t feel safe in my own city taking my kids to the park seeing drug transactions occurring or people with drug induced psychosis and schizophrenia… This is why I want to leave this city because not enough is being done to get them out.”
Other comments encouraged funding for small business relief, improving road maintenance, and funding police. Several comments also called for funding to not go toward handouts and not be used on pay raises for city staff.
Citrus Heights council votes to boost police funding by $5.3M
The city is continuing to collect results for the survey, as part of its planning process for allocating remaining funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. The City Council previously allocated $5.3 million to go towards hiring new police staff.
The city’s extended survey is open through Sept. 6, and can be found on the city’s website. Full results from the initial FlashVote survey can also be viewed at www.citrusheights.net.
