Survey Results: Your outlook on living conditions in D.C. over the next five years

Last month, an opinion piece from the Greater Washington Community Foundation highlighted that residents in our region are struggling to afford necessities like housing, food, or medical expenses. Those same people were also less optimistic about these conditions improving than survey respondents were three years prior. (The foundation periodically collects this data and released the 2023 results from its Community Insights report in May.) 

Documenting the hardships people face, and the will of the people, is a critical piece of democracy — and one of The 51st’s four areas of coverage. The foundation’s Community Insights report data showed that 84% of D.C. residents felt they have “little” or “no” influence on local government decision-making. And that was before this week’s election results that call into question the future of local government in the District. 

So we ran our own survey asking the foundation’s question about future conditions, along with an open-ended one of our own: What one change could make the greatest difference in your life? (We also required respondents to say whether they were D.C. residents and to provide an email address to help prevent multiple responses from the same person.)

Here’s what 74 of you said. 

Nearly half of respondents think living conditions will get worse over the next five years. 

Across all responses, affordable housing was the biggest concern by a landslide:

If my rent didn’t go up astronomically year over year, I could feel stable. – Santiago

I been homeless for years now and I still haven’t got my own apartment yet.  –Raymoni

Rent is suffocatingly high and homeownership is a pipe dream. It once seemed possible with first time homebuyer funding but that well has run dry and there’s no hope in sight. –Terry

Reign in corporate landlords. I think the cost of living will keep soaring. Apartments are insanely expensive, especially as a single person. –JB

Here were all of the top-line categories readers’ comments fell into:

Priorities varied based on people’s perspective

People who said living conditions would get worse over the next five years most often said affordable housing was their top priority: more housing, better rent control, holding landlords accountable for housing code violations, etc. Their second-highest priority was public safety. 

Survey respondents who said living conditions would stay about the same prioritized public safety, then affordable housing.

Meanwhile, most people who thought living conditions would get better over the next five years often identified transportation issues as their top concern (such as more frequent buses, expanded Metro service, and more protected bike lanes), with public safety second and affordable housing third.

Safer Streets is the real number two

“Public safety” can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. We grouped comments into this category to holistically represent respondents’ desires to feel safe wherever they live, work, and play. In this category, preventing traffic deaths far outweighed concerns over crime. (We received no detailed responses related to crime, just “crime” or “less crime.”) 

An affordable environment, a safer environment. – Bridget

Affordability, safety in the historically and currently neglected wards. – Eli 

My kids are older elementary school students, and they walk to and from school on their own or with friends. I see dangerous driving every day, and I worry about letting my kids walk to school or further afield because of distracted and careless driving. We've had many near misses ourselves, and multiple children we know have been hit by drivers. – Caitlin

Figure out a way to enforce DC's traffic laws for all drivers, regardless of where their car is registered … There are too many people driving with impunity on DC's roads. – Justin

Safer biking. I would love to ditch my car and get around mostly by bike but I’m too afraid. – Courtney

Everything else

Transportation was the other most commonly requested area for improvement — lower costs and increased availability (did you read our Circulator eulogy?). All other comments we received were too unique to lump into together, so the other categories below the top three tend to represent answers provided by 1-2 people… Alright, which two of you wrote “new mayor”?

Our survey is a snapshot. You can read everything 800+ D.C. residents said in the foundation’s Community Insights report here.

So… what do we do with this? 

These needs are not going away. But as one prescient commenter wrote: “A lot hinges on how much the next admin interferes in D.C., and my answer would be different after the election.” 

Whether you’re most concerned with how you’re going to make rent, or what could happen to Home Rule – we’ve compiled a list of what our readers are doing to help each other and improve this place we call home.