Officials seeking higher numbers in Lorain, Elyria

With the 2020 census approaching April 1, officials with the U.S. Census Bureau are looking to increase participation to potentially positively impact Ohio’s congressional seat numbers and federal funding.

Census partnership specialist Samuel Arriaga spoke during a Lorain County commissioners meeting Oct. 2 on the issue and noted that the cities of Lorain and Elyria have the highest low response rates in the county.

Lorain County, as a whole, has a low response rate of a little over 20 percent, meaning that the county’s self-response rate current sits at a little over 77 percent, according to the bureau’s Response Outreach Area Mapper.

Arriaga said some parts of the cities have low response rates between high 20 and low 30 percent.

These low response rates directly can dictate congressional seat numbers for the state, which Arriaga contributes to seat numbers dropping from 18 to 16 since 2000.

The number of congressional seats given to a state depends on the population statistics provided by the census, he said.

“We hope to gain more this time by having a complete and accurate count for the 2020 census,” Arriaga said.

Census numbers also are used to redraw district lines to follow population shifts and the distribution of the country’s $675 billion in federal funds.

“The more people in the area, the more money they receive ... It’s all dependent on the count,” Arriaga said.

Census statistics are used by local governments to plan the building of schools and hospitals, residents for consumer advocacy, real estate agencies for developments and home improvements and businesses for building factories and stores.

Arriaga said his work in the county includes collaborating with county agencies and organizations to promote census participation.

Complete count committees are one way that the bureau gets the community involved in these efforts, which rely on collaboration and volunteers to do community outreach and promotional events to educate the public.

Arriaga is working with the city of Lorain to establish a complete count committee.

He also said census workers will work to reach out to under-counted demographics, including veterans, children younger than age 5, immigrants, seniors and non English speakers.

Last census count, 2.4 million children were unaccounted for nationally, with other children being counted as duplicates in households with more than one caregiver, Arriaga said.

Ultimately, the census count had a net deficit of 1.1 million children, he said.

“Especially knowing that we need that aid money coming back, that’s unfortunate,” said commissioner Sharon Sweda.

Commissioner Matt Lundy said the issue of immigration may cause some people in the county to fear speaking to census workers.

Arriaga said census officials will work with community groups to ease that fear.