CIVIC INSIGHTS: Two-Thirds of Residents Say Pensacola is Headed in the Right Direction, But Housing Costs and Homelessness Loom Large

Pensacola, Fl. NewsWK — Nearly two-thirds of Pensacola residents believe the city is moving in the right direction and making progress toward becoming a better place to live.

That is the definitive takeaway from the newly released 2025–2026 Resident Satisfaction Survey, an annual study conducted by the Haas Center at the University of West Florida (UWF). The annual survey, which has been administered by the Haas Center since 2019, provides local leadership with a metric-driven report card directly from the community.

The feedback was gathered through an extensive outreach campaign between February 23 and April 3, 2026. Out of more than 20,700 postcards mailed out to local households alongside digital, email, and phone outreach, researchers verified 1,815 valid responses exclusively from citizens living within Pensacola city limits.

Mayor D.C. Reeves and his administration emphasized that the data will serve as a foundational roadmap for upcoming budget discussions and tactical adjustments.

“What gets measured gets improved,” Mayor Reeves stated regarding the findings. “That’s a truism that I have seen play out time and time again. The Resident Satisfaction Survey is an important tool we can use as a checkpoint for our progress and guardrails to help guide where our efforts should focus”.

What Neighbors Love vs. What They Fear

The survey asked participants to weigh in on what they value most about the Pensacola lifestyle, while also prompting them to force-rank the most critical issues currently threatening their quality of life.

The Top Assets

When asked what makes Pensacola special, residents pointed directly to the city’s natural and cultural amenities:

• Waterfront Access: 29%
• Feeling Safe in the Community: 26%
• Arts, Culture, and Festivals: 24%

Conversely, local sporting events and the quality of public schools sat at the bottom of the spectrum, with each drawing just 1% of the vote.

The Top Challenges & Priorities

While 66% of respondents maintain an optimistic view of the city’s overall trajectory, severe economic and social anxieties remain at the forefront:

• High Cost of Housing: Topped the priority list at 20%. Affordable housing remains a glaring pain point for the city, with 47% of residents reporting they are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with current municipal affordability initiatives. Only 16% expressed satisfaction.
• Reduction of Homelessness: Followed closely behind at 19%. This marks a slight shift from the prior year’s survey, where homelessness occupied the absolute top slot.
• Infrastructure Improvements: Increasing local walkability and bikeability tied with the creation of more job opportunities at 16% each.

Public Safety: Improved Perceptions, But Gun Violence Worries Persist

The data revealed a net positive shift in how residents perceive safety inside their neighborhoods, though localized concerns remain stubborn.

• Neighborhood Safety On the Rise: Nearly half of participants (46%) agreed or strongly agreed that general safety in their neighborhoods has improved over the last 12 months—making it the single highest-rated category under the public safety umbrella.
• Net Positive Scores: Violent crime rates (39%), traffic safety (38%), and non-violent crime rates (37%) all registered net positive satisfaction scores, though “neutral” remained the most common individual response across the board.
• The Gun Violence Shadow: Despite dropping slightly from 42% in the previous survey cycle, gun violence remains the number one public safety fear among residents at 39%. Theft and burglary ranked as the second-highest concern at 21%, while worries regarding illegal drug use and human trafficking ticked marginally upward.

Departmental Performance & Capital Revenue Allocation

The survey pulled back the curtain on how residents interact with municipal services and how they believe city-generated funds should be spent.

Customer Service Standouts

Sanitation services led all city departments in terms of raw resident engagement at 64%, followed closely by Pensacola International Airport at 60% and Parking at 52%. The Airport achieved the crown for customer service excellence, with a staggering 88% of travelers rating their experience as good or excellent.

The Parking Revenue Debate

When asked how revenue generated by city parking meters—paid for primarily by out-of-town visitors—should be reinvested, residents sent a clear message to City Hall:

• 50% voted to allocate funds toward green spaces, including public parks and community gardens.
• 30% favored using the money to erect a new downtown parking garage.

The Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) Knowledge Gap

The survey exposed a drastic misunderstanding of how local tax dollars are distributed. Two-thirds (66%) of participants admitted they did not know that Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) revenue collected directly within the Pensacola city limits is actually pooled and shared across all of Escambia County. Because of this regional distribution agreement, Pensacola receives just one-sixth of the total tax revenue collected inside its own borders.

Mapping Future Economic Growth

Looking toward the future of the local workforce, Pensacola residents see clear winners in the regional industrial landscape. When asked which sectors hold the highest promise for boosting the local economy, respondents looked to the skies and the shores:

• Aviation & Aerospace: 21%
• Hospitality & Tourism: 21%

Surprisingly, despite the massive footprint of Naval Air Station Pensacola and surrounding military infrastructure, the defense and homeland security industry drew a remarkably low 4% of resident votes for economic potential.

Communication Breakdown: A Shift to Digital Subscriptions

Finally, the survey indicated a stark mismatch in how the city pushes out information versus how residents want to consume it.

While 65% of respondents currently rely on social media to figure out what is happening at City Hall, reliance on traditional platforms may soon shift. Roughly 41% of citizens noted they would prefer to receive official municipal updates via direct city text alerts or email subscriptions. That figure is nearly double the 24% of residents who are currently signed up for those direct alert options.

The complete, unabridged data files and data breakdowns for the 2025–2026 Resident Satisfaction Survey have been uploaded for public review on the City of Pensacola’s official website. For real-time breaking alerts and community analysis, keep your browser locked to pensacola.newswk.com.