(The Center Square) – The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce’s latest survey reveals that homelessness remains a top concern of Seattle voters, but public safety is rising as well.
The chamber’s survey was taken from Sept. 20 through Sept. 25 with 700 registered voters interviewed through seven council districts.
Results from a number of topics indicate to the chamber that voters are becoming slightly “less pessimistic” about the direction of the city. However, the quality of life index is still below an average score, according to the chamber’s data.
The low quality of life score could be attributed to two factors: homelessness in the city and an increase in crime.
The survey shows that 57% of voters cite homelessness as their top concern. That is a 3% decrease from the chamber’s previous survey in March.
45% of voters claim public safety to be their top areas of concern. That has remained at about the same percentage since the last survey. However, it is a 17% increase from the chamber’s survey in April, 2021.
The majority of voters continue to say they feel less safe in their own neighborhoods and continue to have concerns about safety downtown. Nearly three-quarters of Seattle voters agree that hiring more police officers should be an immediate priority for the city.
A majority of voters overall (73%) support prioritizing hiring and retaining officers “even if it means reducing the resources available to other city departments that provide critical services to Seattleites,” according to the chamber.
Rachel Smith, the president and CEO at the Seattle Chamber, is optimistic about the rate of voters’ concern regarding homelessness and public safety. She told The Center Square in a phone call that she sees that the “all hands on deck” approach from city officials, business owners and residents towards fixing homelessness will help reduce the concern for both topics.
Smith added that while the percentage of voters who distrust the Seattle City Council (83%) to have a plan to address public safety and homelessness is high, voters are in agreement with Mayor Bruce Harrell’s actions to hire more police officers and increase affordable housing and shelters throughout the city.
Through September, there have been 42 cases of homicide; 1,384 cases of robbery; 33,215 cases of property crime; and 34 fatal shootings throughout Seattle this year, according to the Seattle Police Department’s crime dashboard.
