As the COVID-19 Pandemic Unfolds: Experiences and Perceptions of KCMO Residents

In late March, ETC Institute began surveying people on a national, regional and local basis to understand their experiences and perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Kansas City, Missouri, this initial random sample survey of our residents provided us with important insights and feedback about government services at a point in time when the initial response to the crisis was just unfolding.

Fast-forward to late April, the COVID-19 pandemic has now unfolded in a major way. KCMO, like many local governments, has taken significant steps to prevent and slow the spread of the virus, including a stay-at-home order that began March 24 and has recently been extended to May 15. The virus has impacted our residents in multiple ways — personally, financially, emotionally — and these impacts continue to grow. In this dynamic environment, we were eager to receive results from ETC’s second survey of KCMO residents, conducted April 16–18 (n=349, margin of error = +/- 5.3%). These results provide our leadership with the local context to make decisions to further protect our residents and mitigate the virus’ impact.

Disparate Impacts

Since KCMO’s initial survey, data from many states and cities (including Kansas City) has revealed that African-American people are testing positive for coronavirus at a disproportionately higher rate. The economic impacts of the outbreak have also led to concerns about the experiences of lower-income residents. Therefore, crucial additions to KCMO’s second survey were questions to capture race and income level, to allow us to understand how different groups are experiencing and perceiving the pandemic.

An initial question on the survey reveals the growing impact of COVID-19 on the entire community: 29% of residents know someone personally who has tested positive for COVID-19, up from 2% in late March. At the same time, this question also reveals underlying racial disparities at play: 52% of African-American residents know someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Across the board, 84% of residents believe that COVID-19 is a real threat to their communities, which perhaps is due in part to the personal connections people have experienced with the disease.

Financial Impacts

Even in late March, the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were in sight, but the major ripples of job losses and furloughs had not yet happened. With the April survey, we aimed to gather more detailed information about financial impacts on our residents. Similar to March, 59% of our residents said that their financial situation was worse due to COVID-19, a number that was consistent across races and income levels.

Data on unemployment filings showed a massive increase in April in Missouri and across the country. Our survey results reflect this reality and also give a view into how unemployment is impacting households: one in four residents say that they or someone in their household has filed for unemployment. While this number is consistent across income groups, the racial disparities shown are staggering: 63% of Hispanic/Latinx residents have had someone in their household file for unemployment.

As we focus on the most vulnerable residents in our community, the survey tells us that one in five residents have had trouble paying for necessities. This data shows a moderate disparity by race (one in three African-American residents have had trouble paying for necessities) and a major disparity by income level (one in two residents with annual household income less than $30,000 have had trouble paying for necessities).

Mental Health Impacts

It is intuitive that the pandemic and the efforts to contain it are having an effect on much of our population mentally and emotionally. These are unprecedented times, and many people are experiencing fear, sadness, and loneliness. To try to “take the temperature” of our city’s mental health, we asked our residents to self-rate their level of anxiety, stress, and/or depression. It is perhaps not surprising but still staggering that 44% of our residents rated themselves as extremely or moderately stressed, anxious, or depressed and only 22% rated themselves as not stressed, anxious or depressed.

Despite these self-ratings, only 5% of our residents reported that they or a member of their household have accessed mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic to assist with these feelings of anxiety, stress, or depression. Another 4% report that they have issues with accessing these services but would like to utilize them. The mental health survey questions show consistent trends across race and income levels, suggesting that the pandemic’s emotional impacts are significant for all of our population.

Government Effectiveness

Since the pandemic landscape has shifted so significantly in the time following the last survey, it is helpful for our leaders in KCMO to understand how our residents view our ability to respond. While policy choices are directed by public health best practices and expertise rather than public opinion, implementation of any policy is more successful when the community has trust in its government.

According to the April survey, 64% of KCMO residents have confidence in their city and county leaders to manage their community’s needs during the pandemic, an increase from 50% in March. The change was largely due to a decline in “Don’t Know”, which suggests that residents have learned more about their local government’s approach to this crisis and largely feel positive about that knowledge. One factor in this trust may be that 77% of residents feel that local officials are doing a good job keeping them informed about the COVID-19 pandemic (similar to March). Overall, “excellent” or “good” ratings of city government leadership have increased since late March, an importance piece of feedback for our staff and elected leaders.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic still has many unknowns, for city government and residents. The COVID-19 resident survey provides key insights about how the pandemic is unfolding in Kansas City, many of which support other data that has emerged over the last month. Our leadership is engaged in reviewing this detailed data on our residents’ perspectives and using it to inform future efforts in partnership with the civic community. The next survey, in mid-May, will give us yet another guidepost on this path.