Journal Poll: Majority of voters think city is doing a poor job at handling homelessness

Albuquerque voters are more concerned about homelessness than four years ago, and the vast majority do not think the city is doing a good job addressing homelessness, a new Journal poll found.

Of likely and proven voters, 63% think the city is doing a poor or very poor job addressing homelessness, 30% a fair job and only 7% a good or excellent job.

That perspective does not vary much across gender, ethnic or educational lines. Republicans and conservatives feel more negatively about how the city is addressing homelessness than liberals or Democrats.

“Regardless of how many people have been taken off the streets, as long as there are many people still congregating in certain areas of Central Avenue and other regions of the city, the voters remain concerned,” said Brian Sanderoff, the president of Albuquerque-based Research & Polling Inc., the company that conducted the poll.

Some voters tell them how uncomfortable or intimidated they feel, he said.

The only surveyed group where more than 50% of people thought the city was doing a fair, good or excellent job addressing homelessness were people who approve of how Mayor Tim Keller is handling his job as mayor. Within that group, 60% thought the city was doing a fair, good or excellent job, while 40% thought the city was doing a poor or very poor job addressing homelessness.

Keller has launched multiple initiatives to address homelessness during his tenure, the most recent a 0% interest loan program to help low-income homeowners make repairs. But if people see homelessness on their way to and from work, “they’re going to assess that little has been done and slam the city government’s performance,” Sanderoff said.

Homelessness in Albuquerque more than doubled from 2022 to 2024, according to the 2024 Point in Time Count, and voter concern about homelessness has also increased since 2021, the poll found. Overall, 76% of proven and likely Albuquerque voters said they are very concerned about homelessness, compared with 64% when the same question was polled four years ago. The most recent poll found 92% of voters were somewhat or very concerned about homelessness.

A vast majority of Albuquerque voters are also concerned about crime, although concern is more partisanly divided. The level of concern is similar to four years ago, when the Journal last polled this question. How likely and proven voters feel about crime is strongly correlated with their approval or disapproval of Mayor Tim Keller.

“There are many different cities, counties, state, federal agencies involved in crime, but a mayor will take a lot of the blame, and that’s how politics works,” Sanderoff said.

Among Democrats, 56% are very concerned about crime, while 89% of Republicans are very concerned about crime. Age also affected how concerned voters were about crime, with 79% of people 50 to 64 very concerned and 48% of 18 to 34 very concerned.

Data provided by the Albuquerque Police Department showed that, in 2024, violent crime rose by less than a percentage point while property crime and crimes against society — like gun and drug offenses — dropped by 2% and 4%, respectively.

The statistics represent a continued leveling off of property crime after large decreases from 2018 to 2020. In that same time period, violent crime has gone up and down marginally.

The majority of Albuquerque voters, 60%, are still very or somewhat concerned about the quality of public education, with only 9% not concerned. But fewer people said they are very concerned compared to four years ago. Women were more likely to be very concerned.

Methodology

The Journal Poll is based on a random sample of 514 voters who cast ballots in the 2021 and/or 2023 local government election, and a sample of adults who registered to vote since January 2024 and who said they are likely to vote in the upcoming local government election.

To ensure a representative sample, Research & Polling Inc. sets quotas for race, gender, and age, and weights by education level and party affiliation, if necessary, based on traditional voting patterns in local government elections.

The poll was conducted Sept. 19 through Sept. 26. The voter sample size of 514 has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points. The margin of error grows for subsamples.

All interviews were conducted by live, professional interviewers, based in Albuquerque, with multiple callbacks to individuals that did not initially answer the phone.

Both cellphone numbers (96%) and landlines (4%) of likely voters were used.