• 78% of respondents rent their home
• 72% spend less than $350/month on housing
• 34% have lived in the neighborhood 1 year or less
• 36% have lived in the neighborhood between 2 and 6 years
• 18% have lived in the neighborhood between 7 and 20 years
• 10% have lived in the neighborhood more than 20 years
• 63% cited affordability as attracting them to Hilltop
• 36% plan to leave the neighborhood within the next year
• 54% plan to leave within 2 to 3 years
• 39% plan to live in the neighborhood indefinitely
• 46% of respondents indicated that they had pest problems
• 55% of respondents have children at home

If a respondent lived in the neighborhood for more than 3 years, they were more likely to say they would stay indefinitely.

Police presence, strict code enforcement, paved roads and alleys, less noise, better property maintenance, cleaner - trash removed, and removal of drugs and crime were identified as reasons one might reconsider a decision to leave the neighborhood.

At a September 1999, public neighborhood meeting, residents and business owners in attendance participated in an exercise called "PARK-it!" They were asked to identify elements that they would like to preserve, add, remove or keep out of the neighborhood. Participants were divided into four groups to complete this exercise. Once complete, all the lists were placed on a wall and participants used dot stickers to "vote" on the items that they felt were most important within each category. The items identified are listed on the next page. Following each item is the number of "votes" each item received when the group voted on items listed by all groups. The high-ranking items were used as a basis for goal-setting (see chapter 4, Community Development Plan).