Latinos are more concerned about crime and drug use than Coloradans overall

According to data from a spring poll, Colorado residents of Hispanic descent were more likely than the general population to say that housing costs, crime, drug use and illegal immigration were the biggest problems.

The annual Pulse survey, sponsored by the Colorado Health Foundation, surveyed about 2,400 Colorado adults, including about 500 Latinos, about their personal and financial situations and how serious they consider various problems in the state.

Hispanics have ancestors from all Spanish-speaking parts of the world, while Latinos have their families from Latin America. Because the vast majority of Colorado's Hispanic population is of Latino descent, pollsters used the two terms interchangeably. Both groups can include people of any race or combination of races.

Latinos' top concerns were largely the same as those of the general population, with housing costs and overall cost of living topping the list. More than nine in 10 Latino Coloradans said housing costs were an “extremely serious” or “very serious” problem, and 100% of respondents over 75 in that group agreed. Overall, 89% of Coloradans agreed the problem was extremely or very serious.

“Housing costs outweigh everything else,” said Lori Weigel, director of New Bridge Strategy, which conducts polls for Republican candidates. The foundation hires one firm close to Republicans and one close to Democrats to conduct its polls.

A few years ago, concerns about housing costs were mostly raised in mountain towns, but now even people in traditionally more affordable areas like the Eastern Plains are concerned about it, she says.

In some cases, Colorado residents of Hispanic descent were more likely than the general population to say a problem was extremely or very serious. About 59% of all Colorado residents thought crime in general was that serious a concern, but 72% of Latinos felt the same.

Interestingly, it was Hispanics who preferred to answer the questions in English who caused this discrepancy. Those who answered the survey in Spanish described overall crime as a serious problem to the same extent as all Coloradans. The subgroups include smaller numbers of people, Weigel said, so she wouldn't say this represents a real difference in people's perceptions of the state.

The difference between Latinos and the general population was smaller when it came to crime in their neighborhoods: About a third of Latinos and a quarter of all Coloradans described it as an extremely or very serious problem. People's views about crime in general are more likely to be influenced by incidents they see in the news or on social media, making them feel less safe even when violent crime is not common, Weigel said.

“It takes time for the feeling to go away,” she said.