Census Bureau Site Goes Live As Counting Begins In Earnest

Speaker 1: 00:00 This is KPBS mid day edition. I'm worrying Kavanaugh, not everything is getting sidetracked because of Corona virus fears. For instance, this is a big day for the 2020 census letters are being sent out to every household with instructions on how to take part in the national population count. Luckily we can do that from our homes by internet phone or by mail. Census organizers are hoping for a great response and an accurate count because a lot depends on getting the census right. Joining me is Jorge Gonzales and organizer with the environmental health coalition, which is working to encourage participation in the census. And Jorge, welcome to the program. Good afternoon. Now tell me more about what starts happening today. Speaker 2: 00:47 Well, many organizations, dozens of them throughout the County. Uh, under County 2020, we're doing essentially outreach to different communities and like you mentioned, uh, we are definitely encouraging folks to a one, uh, making sure that they see, uh, the arrival of their, uh, the senses envelope that they will be receiving with instructions on how to fill it out, the survey via mail. But it also will indicate how to do it online or do it over the phone. Speaker 1: 01:13 When people get their letters, they're going to also receive an ID number in that letter. How do they use that ID number to help fill out the census or to access the census? Speaker 2: 01:25 Well, they're right, their ID number. It's something that they have to include in their survey, uh, to make sure that they, uh, correct household gets counted. Um, and they will indicate the number of family members, uh, per household. Speaker 1: 01:37 What kinds of questions are being asked on the census? Speaker 2: 01:40 Well, how many people live in your household? Is there any kids in the household? Uh, they will be questioned on, uh, how do you identify yourself? Ethnicity and race, age group, basic questions. I would get an idea of the type of communities that live in, in different demographics throughout the, the County of San Diego, but specifically the, the County 20, 20. We're working with the hard to count communities and just so you know, and everybody knows that there is no citizenship question. That's one thing that we're really putting out there in the forefront. So that nobody gets the spirit from filling this out. Speaker 1: 02:11 What are some typically undercounted communities that count me 20, 20 in other outreach organizations are going to see that they respond to the census? Speaker 2: 02:22 Well, historically I think based on the 2010 census, the the hard to count communities tend to be, uh, neighborhoods that are, have either been neglected by local government officials that either are enclaves us well of immigrant communities that you know, are newly arrivals. These are also a multi multiunit complexes where they're, it's hard to get, uh, there's hard to get access to. They're hard to reach. Um, these are also communities that sometimes, you know, uh, do, are either homeless or live in shelters and sometimes they live in a church, right? These are hard to, hard to get communities that don't necessarily have access to the internet or necessarily have access to a radio per se. So when we talk about the heart, hard to count communities, they, they, they're very much exist in the neighborhoods. A lot of our, the organizations we work with, um, and I work with environmental health coalition. Speaker 2: 03:17 Uh, we work in these neighborhoods and, and it has to be predominantly be, you know, uh, efforts that are being conducted, uh, by trusted messengers. So that's the very key thing here that we're, we're, we're sending out trusted messengers to these communities to make sure that every household gets counted and that the word gets out, whether it's at a, at a local, uh, community planning group, whether it's at a local school, whether that might be at the local church. Uh, the outreach is really meeting the communities where they're at and not necessarily at the door at times. We know that in a hard to count communities, many families who have two, three jobs, so you might not find them at home. Uh, so we have to go to locations where they actually are at. Speaker 1: 03:57 Is there a deadline for responding to the census? Speaker 2: 04:00 As far as I know it's, it's till the end of July, but what we're saying is you have to do it by the end of April. If you want to avoid the numerators coming to your door and looking for, you are looking to see if anybody in the house who lives there. Um, we want to make sure that the families are filling this out by the end of April. That's where we're, that's, that's our message and we're really highly encouraging folks to do it online as a, as an alternative option. Speaker 1: 04:26 So census takers will eventually be going door to door if people don't respond to the census. Are you concerned that fears about coronavirus will stop people from answering the door and completing the census or make it more difficult to recruit people to go door to door? Speaker 2: 04:44 I think more importantly our messaging, and we're also doing phone banking. So a lot of, a lot of the organizations and accounting 2020 we were doing phone banking. We're diff doing different forms of outreach beyond the door knocking, which is, we know it's vital and important, but the, but the unique thing about this year, like I said again, is the fact that people could do it online. But we are definitely doing the outreach and letting folks know. But this is a, a way that for the first time this year in 2020 people can do it. It wasn't available in 2010 and it is available now. Speaker 1: 05:15 Remind us what's at stake in getting an accurate census count. What do those numbers mean for States, cities, and counties in terms of services and policies? Speaker 2: 05:25 I'd like to say that everything around you, right? Everything around you that you see in your community is based on the census. But more importantly, uh, uh, bringing the right resources to our neighborhoods, right? There's a lot of millions, millions of dollars at stake as we know, for every fee, for every person that does not get counted, we lose approximately, uh, 10,000, uh, $20,000, uh, in the next 10 years. So that's $2,000, uh, per person, just in the city of national city. For instance, there was a 30% under count in 2010. Um, and the sum of money, there were millions of dollars lost. So that's, that's one key thing. And I think that's one thing that everybody should know and definitely stressed to others that there's a lot of money at stake. That if the communities, the communities we, uh, we're working with, uh, don't get counted properly, the, the fundings and the resources that they should be receiving will not arrive. Speaker 2: 06:15 Right. Uh, the other big one is, is the redistricting. We're coming in, we're, we're on election year, uh, electoral year and 2022 will be another year where a lot of districts or districting would happen or new districts will, will come in place as a result of a new population count. We know that for every 1 million people and the state of California, we get a new Senator. And the same thing with an assembly member, right? For every half a million people, we get any assembly member, hence 40 million people in California, 40 senators, 80 assembly members based on the population we have today. So that is more than anything. Uh, I think one thing that people should keep in mind when filling out the survey or in talking to other friends and neighbors, that people should really know that the census is a matter of money. It's a matter of getting the right resources into our neighborhoods. Speaker 2: 07:06 It's also about redistricting. Who do you, who will represent you in the near future? Do you have a presentation in your community? Is it lacking? And the question is why, if there is, if it is lacking, you might want to ask yourself why. So really working with these hard to count communities in the, in the, in the city of San Diego, and they'll go home and all the neighborhoods in this and the County of San Diego in general that are hard to count. It has Pivoto right? For the future of these districts or for the future of getting the precise headcount of, of our communities. Speaker 1: 07:36 I've been speaking with Jorge Gonzalez and organizer with the environmental health coalition, which is working to encourage participation in the 2020 census. And Jorge, thank you very much. Thank you.