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Community survey results prompt questions on homelessness spending and outcomes
Summary
A resident presented results from an ETC Institute community survey showing homelessness, crime and litter as top concerns and urged council to require stronger outcome data and enforcement; speakers at general comment echoed concerns about costs of cleanup and ARPA spending.
At the March 3 Columbia City Council meeting a scheduled public commenter reviewed results from a recently completed ETC Institute community survey and urged stronger outcome reporting and enforcement related to homelessness, public safety and litter.
Bonnie Steinmetz told council that 855 households were sampled in August and that satisfaction scores declined across categories compared with the previous 2019 survey. She said open‑ended responses identified homelessness, crime and litter as the top three concerns and that roughly 423 of 524 open‑ended comments addressed those topics. “My focus is going to be on the open‑ended comments in the survey, which showed the top 3 concerns as homeless, crime, and litter,” Steinmetz said.
Steinmetz summarized council recommendations and staff proposals she said were under consideration: additional public restrooms, increased homeless outreach staffing, expansion of the Divert program, reinstatement of a downtown policing unit, and creating or staffing a litter crew and street‑sweeper program. She cautioned that many proposals would increase costs and urged the council to require clearer outcome data on existing spending. Steinmetz cited ARPA allocations and other budget lines as examples: “ARPA money, 25,200,000.0, 5,600,000.0 of that was for homelessness … The city budgeted greater than 1,000,000 for basic needs,” she said in the record.
During general public comment several speakers raised related concerns. Eugene Helkin urged fiscal scrutiny and asked whether investments such as electric buses and other capital projects are cost‑effective compared with alternatives. Several speakers at the Rollins Road hearing and in general comment asked the city to clarify how funds are used for cleanup of camps, vandalism and emergency response.
Council members and staff acknowledged the scale of public concern. Council Member Mallory and others said addressing homelessness and litter will require dedicated funding and staff time; council members noted budget tradeoffs and said staff will continue to report program outcomes and explore measures to improve public safety and cleanliness.
No formal council action was taken from the scheduled comment; the remarks were part of the public comment record and will inform future budget and program discussions.
