Residents urged to complete census

Wednesday is the deadline to take the census, and Congressman Jared Huffman is urging North Coast residents to make sure they get it done and ensure the necessary amount of resources come to the area.

“This is our once-in- adecade chance to make sure we count everyone in this district because that is going to shape our future,” Huffman (D-san Rafael) said. “So please take a few minutes, complete the census, and check in with your friends and family to make sure they are doing that, too, so we can all be counted.”

Huffman hosted a special Facebook Live event Wednesday afternoon with Connie Stewart, executive director of the California Center for Rural Policy at Humboldt State University, who spoke to the difficulties in and necessities of getting an accurate and complete count for the 2020 Census. Humboldt County’s current response rate is 61.4% and was 62.6% during the prior 2010 Census, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

“This accurate count is necessary because this is how federal funds are distributed,” Huffman said. “It determines the allocation for local federal programs, but it does even more than that. It impacts redistricting for both federal districts and state government districts.”

The House Oversight and Reform Committee recently completed a report showing the impact of an undercount in individual congressional districts, Huffman said. That report found that a 1% undercount would mean $183,000 less in federal funding for Title 1 schools, he said.

“That is the equivalent of all the textbooks that 730 students would need in a school year,” he said.

That would also mean $165,000 less in federal funding for job training centers and career counseling, Huffman said.

“That’s just a 1% undercount,” Huffman said. “You think about where we are right now, we are teetering at only about a 66% completion rate on the census, so the costs of not getting to 100% are really astronomical.”

The fact that many parts of Humboldt County are remote makes it difficult to get an accurate count, Stewart said.

“Communities that have postal service delivered to their door have an easier time taking the census,” Stewart said.

“Some of the areas that are remote and don’t have door-to- door postal service struggle because if some federal person didn’t come out to their door and invite them to take the census, they have to work extra hard.”

The local Native American community is in that boat, too, Stewart said.

“Being counted is really a justice issue in this community,” Stewart said.