Early census end sparks concerns
DANBURY — Another set of TV ads were set to broadcast to remind the city to fill out the U.S. Census after the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the count could be halted early.
“That’s disappointing because I’m not sure that everybody got counted,” said Michelle James, cochair of Danbury’s Complete Count Committee, which focused on encouraging residents, especially those who have been historically hard to reach, to fill out the census.
The percentage of Danbury residents who filled out the census themselves is 66.6 percent, but the U.S. Census Bureau does not provide by city how many people were counted by enumerators going door-to-door.
The downtown area typically has a low response rate, James said.
The census affects congressional representation
and how much federal money the state and local communities receive for programs such as food stamps, energy assistance for seniors and more.
The state received $11 billion in federal funding for these programs and others last year. For every person that is under counted, Connecticut loses $2,900 per year in federal funding, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said.
Often vulnerable communities that need those dollars the most, such as urban areas and people of color, are not counted in the Census, she said.
“All these programs that help communities of color and vulnerable communities are key to census numbers,” Bysiewicz said. “There has been this deliberate attempt to try to disinvest in vulnerable communities that need those funding and those programs.”
Bysiewicz said an under count could threaten the ability for communities of color to recover from the health and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Those are also the communities that were hit hardest by COVID-19 and the economic catastrophe that
occurred as a result of it,” she said.
Pandemic challenges
A lower court ruled the census could continue through the end of October due to the pandemic, but the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration’s argument that the count should end to meet the Dec. 31 deadline for figures to be completed.
Unable to hold events in the difficult-to-reach communities due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Danbury committee put advertisements on buses and television, James said. Organizers handed out flyers in multiple languages at food pantries. These efforts were paid for through a state grant, she said.
“Any place we knew that there were going to be people that were legally able to get together, we would be there,” James said.
The committee considered sending an ice cream truck to neighborhoods, but then coronavirus cases spiked in the city, she said.
“We’ve been hit with a lot of problems in encouraging people to complete their census,” James said.
Some people who received flyers filled out the census on the spot, while others said they already had, she said. In some cases, those contacted said
they were scared to fill it out.
“They’re afraid of the government for whatever reason,” James said.
The Trump administra
tion’s failed push to include a citizenship question on the census had sparked concern that undocumented immigrants would not fill out their forms.
The state’s self-response rate of 70.6 percent is higher than the country’s average of 66.8 percent. This is also up from 69.5 percent in Connecticut in 2010.
But if given until the end of the month as planned, enumerators in Connecticut would have been able to focus more on cities with lower response rates, Bysiewicz said.
“Those communities could benefit from having extra time,” said Bysiewicz, adding enumerators fewer months than typical to knock on doors due to the pandemic.
This includes Hartford, which has a 48.9 percent self-response rate. Stonington is at 53.7 percent, followed by Bridgeport at 53.9 percent, New Haven at 55 percent and Waterbury at
56 percent.
Some smaller communities have worse response rates. Groton Long Point, which is part of Groton, has a 37 percent response rate, while Fenwick, which is part of Old Saybrook, is at
22.4 percent.
The U.S. Census Bureau is ending field operations on Thursday, but residents have until 6 a.m. Friday to fill out the forms online. The deadline for paper forms and phone responses is the end of the day Thursday.
“I just hope that people that didn’t complete it do so as soon as possible just to make sure Danbury and the state of Connecticut gets all they’re entitled to,” James said.