This spring, Outlier Media commissioned a survey of more than 2,000 Detroiters to better understand their biggest challenges. The results revealed broad agreement on the city’s most pressing issues.
Safety, blight and other longstanding concerns were top of mind for many respondents. With Detroit’s crowded mayoral race to succeed Mike Duggan in full swing, residents have an opportunity to see these concerns reflected in substantive policy proposals.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents (64%) said safety was a challenge. A similar number cited neighborhood conditions — like blight, lighting and problems with sidewalks or trash.
what Detroiters need
Detroiters answered these questions as part of the latest Detroit Metropolitan Areas Community Survey (DMACS). Outlier commissioned 43 questions in the survey. Since 2016, we’ve used surveys to identify information gaps and hold institutions accountable. The results guide our newsroom decisions: We assign reporters, support Detroit Documenters coverage and plan investigations based on what Detroiters say they need.
The majority of respondents in this survey are Black (75%) and reported household incomes under $50,000 a year (63%). About 40% are renters, and more than three-quarters have lived in Detroit for more than 20 years. The full DMACS survey was 195 questions long. People who took the survey were paid for their time.
Here are some of our biggest takeaways.
Key findings
We asked respondents to evaluate a list of seven common challenges — identifying whether each posed a major, minor or no challenge at all for their household. The most common challenges were:
- Crime or safety
- Neighborhood conditions and upkeep
- Access to adequate food
“Reliable transportation” missed the top three concerns by just one percentage point.
Housing, long recognized as a major issue in Detroit, ranked lower this spring. That’s a notable shift from earlier Outlier surveys that were not conducted through DMACS. Though less scientifically rigorous, those earlier surveys frequently flagged housing as a top concern.
Still, among the Detroiters who said they faced more than three major challenges, housing was ranked the single biggest one — followed closely by employment and safety.
Almost 250 respondents identified a top challenge apart from the options offered. Health care or health insurance was the major challenge most often named by these Detroiters.
Safety and policing
Crime and safety are the top concerns for the most Detroiters we surveyed, but we don’t have a detailed understanding of why. We did ask: “What would make you feel safer?” The most common response, by far: more police or community safety patrols.
Among those respondents who ranked safety as a major concern, almost all wanted a greater police presence. But support for this solution was not universal: Just 51% of all participants said more police in their neighborhood would make them feel safer.
There is no widespread public trust in police. A slight majority (55%) only “somewhat agreed” or neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement, “The police in my neighborhood can be trusted.”
Transportation
For Detroiters who called out transportation as a major challenge, more than three-quarters pointed to the cost of buying or maintaining a car. More than two-thirds of that same group said the cost of car insurance was a major barrier — unsurprising, given that Detroit drivers pay the highest car insurance rates of any city in the country. These high costs stem largely from insurers’ reliance on drivers’ location, not crime data, to set rates.
Survey respondents who try to rely on public transportation face well-documented problems. Nearly half said the city’s unreliable public transit was a major challenge; more than a quarter called it a minor challenge.
Trust in local officials
Detroiters told us they trust themselves and their neighbors to address their concerns. More than three-quarters believe they can make a difference in their own communities.
Trust in local elected officials, however, is less secure. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said they trust the local government in Detroit to “do the right thing” only “some” or “a little bit.” That said, trust in local officials was notably higher than trust in the federal government, with 47% saying they had no trust that Congress or the presidential administration would do the right thing.
Housing
Among renters, 14% said they have been evicted or threatened with eviction in the past five years. More than half (52%) said they sometimes, often or always worry about making rent. For homeowners with a mortgage, 31% said they worry about being able to make their payments, and 32% said they worry about affording property taxes.
Only a quarter of our survey-takers said homeownership in Detroit doesn’t feel financially risky. Still, a majority believe owning a home in Detroit would help their financial situation. Notably, just 65% of the homeowners in our survey reported having homeowners insurance.
What we still don’t know
We’ll spend the next year trying to better understand the challenges Detroiters highlighted, why these challenges persist and what might help reduce the harm they cause.
We were surprised by how many Detroiters said they struggle to find the food they need. This is the first time food access has ranked so high in one of our needs surveys. We plan to dig deeper: Is the issue food prices, availability, access or a combination?
We also want to better understand exactly what respondents meant when they named “safety” and “neighborhood condition” as top concerns. Does this mean blight, pedestrian safety, crime, all of the above or something else?
If you’re a Detroiter and want to talk to us about your concerns or challenges, we’d love to hear from you. Email shulett@outliermedia.org or text the word CONCERNS to 67485.*
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Sarah Alvarez is the Founder and Editor-At-Large at Outlier Media. Sarah (she/her) believes the best local reporting is a service, responds directly to community needs and reduces harm. Her favorite place in Detroit is her backyard on a summer evening.
