This is the fourth of a series of surveys checking in on the economic consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic in my district. The additional dimensions explored in this survey were: Housing status (rent/own) and the variations in response depending on form of outreach.
Key Takeaways
- Roughly 1/3 of all those reporting working outside the home before COVID-19 expect to be working from home “in the long run”. This result appears consistent across the respondent groups in the survey.
- A majority of respondents feel that the state is opening too fast. The percentage with this view ranged from 48% to 66% among the different respondent groups. Many people qualified this in comments by noting that if people were better about wearing masks, etc., we might be better able to sustain more opening.
- The percentage of respondents who are renters varied significantly across the respondent groups, ranging from 71% among individuals in Boston who have corresponded with my office to 18% on Allston-Brighton news lists to only 9% on a Belmont news list. However, the rate reporting behind on bills was low in all groups.
- Response rates are vastly higher for individual emails than for impressions on Facebook. Individual emails appear to have much higher response rates than list emails, but the list denominator is unknown — we don’t have subscriber data for the news lists as of this writing.
Survey Process and Sample
The survey process included the same methods as in our March, April , and June surveys. However, in this survey, I sent different forms to the outreach groups, so that I was able to compare response rates and results across groups. My outreach emails include no open-tracking tokens so as to fully respect the privacy an anonymity of my constituents. So, until this survey, I had no clear sense of the group sourcing of the responses. Here is the breakdown:
| Reach | Repetition | Form Views | Raw Response | Deduped Response | Net response rate | |
| Email to 3 Allston-Brighton community google groups (“AB Groups”) | ? | 2 | 176 | 101 | 92 | ? |
| Email to 1 Belmont community mail group (“Belmont group”) | ? | 2 | 115 | 80 | 68 | ? |
| Individual emails to Boston correspondents with my office (“Boston emails”) | 2033 | 2 | 783 | 526 | 484 | 23% |
| Individual emails to Belmont Watertown correspondents with my office (“Bel/Wat emails”) | 2132 | 2 | 1008 | 740 | 688 | 31% |
| Facebook advertisement targeted to whole senate district (Belmont, Watertown and parts of Boston) (“Facebook”) | 6112 | 4 | 627 | 152 | 148 | 2% |
| Individual email to subscribers to my office new email list (“Subscribers”) | 4314 | 2 | 2430 | 1611 | 1454 | 34% |
| TOTAL | 14726+ | 5139 | 3210 | 2934 |
As discussed in connection with the the March and April surveys, “the outreach heavily targeted people who are engaged in their local community. It should be added that the outreach would especially favor those interested in online discussion of issues, especially issues of state policy.”
The initial mailing was on Sunday, August 9 with a repetition on Tuesday, August 11. Some recipients got an extra emailing through an error on Sunday, August 9. Due to delays in Facebook ad approval, the Facebook ad ran from August 12 through August 17. Although the forms remained open online through August 18, only 83 entries (3%) were made on the emailed forms after August 12.
The individual emails to correspondents and formal subscribers to my news list were not overlapping, but the community groups and Facebook outreach could overlap all groups. Between the potential overlap and the repeated sends, there were a total of 276 possible duplicate entries, where IP address and browser type were the same. These are not necessarily true duplicates — they could be the people in the same household. However, in caution, we only retained the last entry in each case.
Age of Respondents (Self Reported)
| 24 or under | 25 to 64 | 65 or over | All Ages | |
| AB Groups (3) | 0% | 63% | 37% | 100% |
| Bel Group | 0% | 79% | 21% | 100% |
| Boston emails | 11% | 75% | 14% | 100% |
| Bel/Wat emails | 2% | 76% | 22% | 100% |
| 2% | 74% | 24% | 100% | |
| Subscribers | 1% | 62% | 37% | 100% |
| ALL | 3% | 69% | 29% | 100% |
Zip Code of Respondents (self reported)
| Back Bay (02116) | Fenway (02115, 02215) | Allston-Brighton (02134, 02135) | Watertown (02472) | Belmont (02478) | Other | Total | |
| AB Groups (3) | 0% | 0% | 82% | 0% | 13% | 5% | 100% |
| Bel Group | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3% | 96% | 1% | 100% |
| Boston emails | 11% | 21% | 58% | 1% | 0% | 8% | 100% |
| Bel/Wat emails | 0% | 0% | 0% | 53% | 43% | 3% | 100% |
| 1% | 6% | 20% | 33% | 35% | 5% | 100% | |
| Subscribers | 5% | 7% | 16% | 26% | 33% | 14% | 100% |
| ALL | 4% | 7% | 21% | 28% | 31% | 9% | 100% |
Results
Question 1: Massachusetts’ COVID-19 response so far
| form | About right | Should open faster | Opening too fast | Total |
| AB Groups (3) | 43% | 1% | 55% | 100% |
| Bel Group | 34% | 0% | 66% | 100% |
| Boston emails | 34% | 5% | 61% | 100% |
| Bel/Wat emails | 45% | 7% | 48% | 100% |
| 41% | 12% | 47% | 100% | |
| Subscribers | 39% | 4% | 56% | 100% |
| All | 40% | 5% | 55% | 100% |
Question 2: Own economic situation
| OK for now | Behind on bills | Secure for at least 1 year | Total | |
| AB Groups (3) | 27% | 2% | 71% | 100% |
| Bel Group | 24% | 1% | 75% | 100% |
| Boston emails | 38% | 4% | 57% | 100% |
| Bel/Wat emails | 31% | 5% | 64% | 100% |
| 33% | 6% | 61% | 100% | |
| Subscribers | 25% | 2% | 73% | 100% |
| All | 29% | 3% | 68% | 100% |
Question 3: Shelter payments
| Subsidized Rent | Market Rent | Mortgage | Taxes Only | Total | |
| AB Groups (3) | 2% | 16% | 46% | 36% | 100% |
| Bel Group | 0% | 9% | 71% | 21% | 100% |
| Boston emails | 6% | 65% | 20% | 10% | 100% |
| Bel/Wat emails | 2% | 29% | 48% | 21% | 100% |
| 4% | 28% | 53% | 15% | 100% | |
| Subscribers | 3% | 25% | 40% | 32% | 100% |
| All | 3% | 32% | 40% | 25% | 100% |
Question 4A: Work arrangement before COVID-19
| Working outside home | Working from home | Unemployed | Not working (retired, partner works, other) | Total | |
| AB Groups (3) | 68% | 10% | 2% | 20% | 100% |
| Bel Group | 60% | 13% | 0% | 26% | 100% |
| Boston emails | 80% | 6% | 3% | 11% | 100% |
| Bel/Wat emails | 75% | 9% | 3% | 14% | 100% |
| 71% | 7% | 3% | 20% | 100% | |
| Subscribers | 61% | 11% | 2% | 26% | 100% |
| All | 68% | 10% | 2% | 20% | 100% |
Question 4B: Work arrangement now
| Working outside home | Working from home | Unemployed | Other not working | Total | |
| AB Groups (3) | 18% | 48% | 10% | 24% | 100% |
| Bel Group | 7% | 54% | 12% | 26% | 100% |
| Boston emails | 20% | 53% | 14% | 12% | 100% |
| Bel/Wat emails | 17% | 57% | 11% | 15% | 100% |
| 17% | 54% | 10% | 19% | 100% | |
| Subscribers | 11% | 54% | 8% | 27% | 100% |
| All | 15% | 55% | 10% | 21% | 100% |
Question 4C: Expected work arrangement “in the long run”
| Working outside home | Working from home | Not working | Total | |
| AB Groups (3) | 35% | 39% | 26% | 100% |
| Bel Group | 38% | 34% | 28% | 100% |
| Boston emails | 52% | 33% | 14% | 100% |
| Bel/Wat emails | 52% | 33% | 15% | 100% |
| 50% | 28% | 22% | 100% | |
| Subscribers | 40% | 33% | 28% | 100% |
| All | 45% | 33% | 22% | 100% |
Question 4C: Expected work arrangement “in the long run” — responses limited to those working outside home before COVID-19
| Working outside home | Working from home | Not working | Total | |
| AB Groups (3) | 48% | 44% | 8% | 100% |
| Bel Group | 59% | 34% | 7% | 100% |
| Boston emails | 61% | 34% | 5% | 100% |
| Bel/Wat emails | 64% | 33% | 3% | 100% |
| 65% | 31% | 4% | 100% | |
| Subscribers | 61% | 35% | 4% | 100% |
| All | 62% | 34% | 4% | 100% |
Cross Tab: Economic Outlook vs. Shelter Payments
| OK for now | Behind on bills | Secure for at least 1 year | All | |
| Mortgage | 27% | 2% | 71% | 100% |
| Market Rent | 42% | 6% | 52% | 100% |
| Subsidized rent | 42% | 14% | 43% | 100% |
| Taxes only | 13% | 0% | 87% | 100% |
| ALL | 29% | 3% | 68% | 100% |
The underlying data appear in this spreadsheet. The survey questionnaire appears here.