CITY HALL — Just 33 percent of voters believe that quality of life in New York City is "good" or "very good," the lowest numbers ever measured in a poll from Quinnipiac University.
The poll, released Thursday, found that 48 percent of voters believe quality of life has gotten worse versus 32 percent who say its about the same. The poll found that 19 percent say quality of life has improved.
Leading concerns about quality of life are crime and homelessness.
According to the poll, 46 percent of voters say crime is a very serious problem. That figure is the highest ever recorded by a Quinnipiac University poll, which started in 1988. Another 44 percent say crime is "somewhat serious."
On the homelessness issue, 53 percent of voters say they see more homeless than they did a few years ago and 49 percent say they have encountered more homeless people panhandling.
“The quality of life in New York City isn’t good and it’s getting worse, many voters think,” Quinnipiac University Poll Assistant Director Maurice Carroll said in a statement.
“It’s not just newspaper hype about the return of the bad old days, New Yorkers say. Many are seeing more homeless people on the streets and encountering more pan-handlers," he added.
There are currently 56,242 people in shelters which is down from the high of 59,000 reported in December. The city's annual survey of street homelessness in February found 3,182 people living on the streets.
As officials from his administration did Wednesday when another Quinnipiac University poll showed Mayor Bill de Blasio with his lowest ever overall approval rating, the mayor dismissed the findings Thursday at a City Hall press conference.
De Blasio cited city efforts to build 200,000 units of affordable housing and policing strategies to lower crime "which are working," said the mayor, who has made battling income inequality the focus of his administration.
City officials blamed the high numbers of homeless on funding cuts during the Bloomberg administration and said de Blasio has upped funding for the homeless $1 billion over four years.
"Public opinion polls are not what I’m focused on. I’m focused on that work," de Blasio said.
That stance didn't stop the mayor's aides from going on Twitter Friday and defending his record on crime, homelessness and quality of life in the city.
Quality of life? Under Mayor @BilldeBlasio NYC has highest job # n 2 decades (4.2 million); added 160,000 private sector jobs since Jan 2014
— Karen Hinton (@KarenHinton) August 7, 2015Quality of NYC life: Overall crime under @BilldeBlasio is down 5.3% compared to the same period last year.
— Monica Klein (@MonicaCKlein) August 7, 2015
But the latest crime figures also show that murders are up 10 percent.
Jeanne Zaino, a professor of political science at Iona College, called the poll numbers alarming.
"The heart of the job of a big city mayor is that you have to keep people safe and the city clean and functioning," Zaino said. "Perception is reality in crime and perception is reality in quality of life. When people perceive something it matters."
