Initial questions

What do you think about opening with something like:

To what degree do you see homelessness/poverty in Vancouver as a social problem?

1. not a problem at all 2. somewhat of a problem 3. it is a problem 4. Severe problem

I'm not sure if this is the best question but I think it's important to establish the view of Vancouverites/British Columbians on homelessness/poverty. Do our respondents see it as a problem? I recognize that homelessness and poverty are not the same thing but I use the terms intechangeably here for the sake of the discussion.

Following that, I thought it might be good to establish to what degree people believe it is the responsibility of the government to address the problem:

To what degree is the government responsible for aiding the homeless get off the streets (or something like that)?

1......... 2......... 3......... 4.........

Then I thought it might be interesting to find out what level of government people think should be responsible for addressing homelessness. Should it be the responsibility of the Provincial government or local governments. I'm not sure how this would work however i do think the views of those that own million dollar lofts in Gastown would have a very different view of what the provincial government's role should be versus those that live in Smithers. NOt sure how to measure this one though...

Then, find out if respondents believe the government is providing appropriate levels of social assistance for those who wish to access it.

1.... 2.... 3.... 4....

That's just a few thoughts... I just wanted to get something out there...

Hey guys,

These questions look great. I like Jason's question about which level of government people think should be responsible for addressing homelessness. We might just measure it as ranking in order which level should carry the most responsibility. i.e. 1 being the lowest responsibility, 3 being the highest __Municipal __Provincial __Federal __Other (like a charity or not for profit organization) I know that's a far from perfect measurement, but it's just a thought.

Based on all of the questions you guys have posted, I'm thinking we'll be able to come up with some broader research questions that could guide us. For example: Does a person's proximity to the DTES have an affect on their attitudes towards poverty/inequality?

Just some ideas!

Hi all,

I was thinking we might want to combine the role of each level of government (municipal, provincial, federal, not a government issue) with a question about how effective people think those levels of governments are at tackling homelessness.

I also think Jason raised an important point that we should probably address. Namely, how do we parse our questions about homelessness from the questions about poverty? Because I think there are a number of issues which may apply to those living in poverty and the homeless, and also issues which pertain to each group individually. Do we want to treat them as two subheadings under a single umbrella or as separate groups altogether? Are we more interested in one or the other?

Also the issue of public housing in relatively affluent neighbourhoods is an interesting thought to explore. Maybe we could formulate a question that asks to what degree a homeowner has the 'right' to refuse the construction of rehabilitative public housing in their areas.

AlannaTom 13:27, 10 February 2012 (PST)

Hey Guys, All of the questions look great. I like Grace's opening question regarding people's thoughts on the causes of homelessness. Also the issue of public housing or low income housing projects (as Alanna has pointed out) might help us gauge support for government involvement and whether or not people believe that the government should play a prominent role in aiding the homeless. I was thinking that a question on safe injection sites might also be helpful. Perhaps a question like: Do you support the opening of additional safe injection sites in Vancouver? Answers could be yes or no or maybe numerical 1=strongly support and 5=strongly oppose. Just some thoughts

It sounds like we have some good potential survey questions developing. We might ask something to measure people's attitudes towards inequality, and whether or not a person's wealth is something they have control over. So a question could be: "People can ameliorate their economic status if they just worked harder" with an option of agree strongly, agree, disagree etc. This question might also help shed light on how much people think the government should be responsible for dealing with poverty/inequality.

Also based on Darren's question about safe injection sites, we could ask something to measure people's attitudes about how much they think drug addiction is a disease that requires treatment.

(double post)

Great questions and examples so far! I'm wondering if we should start honing in on what our topic should really target at the moment, it seems that people have offered great ideas, however, they seem to be getting quite diverse. I personally think that linking homelessness and government intervention is a great idea, where Grace's initial question and Jason's more specific question flow quite nicely. I think that finding out the varying degrees on what people think of the problem of homelessness or poverty would be interesting to see, following with linking this to government action would be a great way to really guage what people know about this problem, and their ideas on how to solve them.

I also think we should really focus on what type of questions our survey will have in terms of measuring. Do we want a simple yes/no survey, a survey that is based upon a scale (if so, what?), etc. I personally like the 1-5 scale, as this gives a level of potential diverse answers (depending on our question) as well as the potential to speculate causes as to why people chose what they chose. With simple yes/no questions, we're unable to draw as many conclusions/speculations on a topic that is quite broad in itself.

Hello everyone,

In terms of the types of questions our survey will encompass, I also think that we should use something like the Likert scale, since it could help us understand the attitudes of the respondents more clearly, as well as provide us with more diverse answers. I For example, a question about safe injection sites might look something like this:

"Under certain circumstances, safe injection sites are justifiable" 1 - strongly agree 2 - agree - 3 - neutral - 4 - disagree 5 - strongly disagree

Also, adding a "don't know" option might yield more accurate results, since some people may simply not have an opinion about the question itself. It could also provide us with some insight into how much knowledge people have about the specific topic.

I fully agree with you on the proposal to add a "don't know" option. However, we might want to adjust the statement "under certain circumstances," because it can yield some uncertainty. Directing the statement to be more specific to our topic could be more effective, perhaps stating, "The presence of safe injection sites in the Downtown East Side is justifiable."

Just my two cents :), let me know what you think!

To address Alanna's questions, there are a couple options. The first would be to define poverty in relative terms and say people who have a household income of less than x amount. There might be some validity issues with using that type of measure though, and people being surveyed may perceive the questions quite differently when you start putting income numbers on things.

Another option is to just focus on the homeless, which would be easier, but we may be excluding people like those living in government subsidized housing.

Thoughts?

(P.S. this is a fantastic discussion!!)

For the purposes of a 5 question survey, it might be easiest to just focus on homelessness. I agree with Grace's point that it might exclude an important group, could we just say "including those living in government subsidized housing"?

On the other hand if we do go with a more general poverty, we could get into territory more about potential redistribution of wealth/wealth being heavily concentrated in a small population.

Based on the questions people have been proposing, I think that we're leaning more towards homelessness, and thinking about areas where poverty is concentrated, rather than the inequality across a larger population.

What do you guys think?

(p.s. I agree with Grace, this is great!)

I definitely think that an attitude-gauging question like the one that Elise suggested is a good idea. So maybe we could pose a question about how a respondent feels about the causes of poverty in general with a focus on personal responsibility, followed by a question that focuses more on government responsibility.

Also, maybe we should think about whether or not/how we want to ask about the kinds of addiction issues, like the safe-injection site question Darren brought up.

I think Alanna has a good point - since we are limited to only 5 questions, focusing on the homeless may be a good idea. I'm not sure what Elise meant by "including those living in government subsidized housing" though, could you explain? I also think it would be good to start with a question about how a respondent feels in general about the causes of poverty. I really liked Grace's initial question, since it really gauges into how much knowledge people have about the homeless in Vancouver. What do you guys think?