09/06/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/06/2024 17:13
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:
Priorities for the City's budget remain fairly consistent with research from 2022. Fire, Police and Street Maintenance top the list. 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:
Sentiment about the quality of life in Vancouver has improved since 2022.
The top areas of concern to community members are homelessness, crime and cost of living/housing
Positive sentiment about the job Vancouver City government is doing for the community improved from 2022 to 2024:
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.