City Manager Update: Sept. 2024
September 6, 2024
Every couple of years, the City conducts a community survey to listen to your thoughts and feelings about the quality of life and the economy in Vancouver. This year, the hybrid phone survey was conducted over seven days in mid-June.
The data we collected is also being used to gauge sentiment around the services we offer you as a City and to identify and understand general community values with an eye toward the City’s 2025-26 biennial budgeting process. As you may have heard, this next budget cycle is more challenging than our biennial budgets in the recent past and we are making budget reduction decisions for the first time in a decade to close a $43 million budget gap for the biennium.
The following is a general overview of the community survey results:
Budget priorities
Budget priorities remain fairly consistent with research from 2022 with police and fire atop the list. Maintaining streets and managing traffic flow rise by 19 points combined.
When asked to rank priorities, access to affordable housing for residents of all income levels placed third after police and fire.
Notable changes from 2022:
- Managing traffic flow increased by 8%
- Maintaining streets increased by 11%
- Parks and recreation increased by 12%
- Attracting and keeping businesses increased by 5%
Quality of life
Sentiment about the quality of life in Vancouver has improved since 2022.
- 20% of residents say quality of life is getting better compared to only 13% in 2024
- People who feel positively about the direction of quality of life in Vancouver value growth, jobs and the overall experience of living in Vancouver
- 50% of those in Vancouver rate the economic conditions as good, up from 40% in 2022
Top concerns
The top areas of concern to community members are homelessness, crime and cost of living/housing
- The top two reasons residents express concern about the quality of life getting worse in Vancouver are homelessness (49%) and crime/safety (61%).
- Crime/Safety dropped by 20% from 2022 to 2024, but “drugs” as a stand-alone issue was new in the 2024 survey and was mentioned by 12% of people who say that quality of life is declining
- Cost of living + cost of housing is a top issue for 25% of residents (24% in 2022).
City government
Positive sentiment about the job Vancouver City government is doing for the community improved from 2022 to 2024:
- Keeping citizens informed increased by 7%
- Focusing on priorities that matter to the community increased by 5%
- Delivering services efficiently increased by 3%
The City is continuing to advance its focus and work on resilience, social and economic recovery and growth, and enhancing safety and livability for the entire community. We remain committed to getting better all the time, and I’m encouraged by the feedback from this latest community survey as our city continues to grow and evolve from a suburban to an urban destination.
Thank you to those who took the time to respond to our questions. If you’d like to review the full survey and its results, you can find it posted to the City’s data hub.
