City Budget Office previews Insight Survey and Performance Portland dashboard; homelessness, cost of living and safety top concerns

City Budget Office staff on May 20 presented highlights from the 2024 Portland Insight survey and introduced Performance Portland, a new public dashboard of city performance measures.

Ruth Levine, director of the City Budget Office, said the Insight survey provides a representative snapshot of Portlanders’ views and complements other public engagement. Ning Jiang, the project manager for the Insight survey, described a hybrid sampling approach carried out with Portland State University’s Regional Research Institute and said the survey included focus groups to better represent groups that typically do not engage with government.

Survey findings and the dashboard preview showed consistent themes: respondents identified homelessness, the high cost of living and community safety as the top challenges facing Portland. Parks and natural areas scored highest for service satisfaction; street maintenance and cost of living scored lowest. Disaggregated results showed District 1 respondents reported slightly lower satisfaction on several measures, and respondents identifying as some communities of color reported lower feelings of safety when walking in their neighborhoods.

Lillian Nguyen, interim performance manager in the budget office, presented Performance Portland metrics tied to those themes. She flagged rising unsheltered homelessness, increases in renter households cost-burdened by housing, and mixed signals on crime: some categories have decreased while residents still report effects from prior spikes.

Deb Elliott of Portland State University's Regional Research Institute explained the survey methodology and weighting. She said the survey produced a 17% response rate, with an estimated sampling error of 1.49 (well within commonly accepted margins), and that the instrument was weighted to make results generalizable to Portland’s population.

Councilors raised questions about timing and the role of these tools in budget decisions. Councilor Smith asked for more post‑budget listening sessions, saying community input after a mayor’s budget would be more useful than only beforehand. Councilor Avalos and others pressed for improved public communication; the survey found most respondents prefer email and mail, while the city often relies on online portals and social media.

Councilors also asked about the survey’s section on residents who had moved away; staff noted only 37 respondents answered that part of the survey, limiting the ability to draw strong conclusions. The budget office said the survey and dashboards are one of several public‑engagement inputs and that staff would continue to refine outreach for future cycles.

Ending: The budget office said the full Insight survey report is available as an agenda attachment and that staff will continue to use the survey and Performance Portland metrics to inform upcoming budget discussions.