Point Reyes Light- October 15, 1998
Census bureau vows to take better count of West Marin
US Census takers in the year 2000 hope to get the first accurate count ever of West Marin residents - an important task, because funding of government services is linked to local population data.
This week, the US Bureau of the Census began the tricky business of linking West Marin residents to actual street addresses. The problem starts with the fact that many residents are known to the government only by their postoffice box. Other folks are longterm visitors with other primary addresses. Still others are recent immigrants or are homeless with no mailing address, telephone number, or permanent location.
From now until Thanksgiving, census takers will be walking the streets, combing the Seashore, and visiting ranches as they count the "living quarters" of West Marin. They will try to link postoffice boxes to street addresses.
"This early field operation of the census is strictly to establish and update our master address list," said Census Bureau spokesman Bob Clingman. "We will use this master address list to mail all the census questionnaires to people in March 2000. The headcounting actually begins after we receive the completed questionnaires."
As part of the current field operation, the census listers will knock on doors to ask for basic information, such as the occupant's name, mailing address, and telephone number, Clingman said. All listers are identifiable by their red, white and blue badges that designate them as a "Census Enumerator."
All information given to census takers will be kept confidential, Clingman insisted. In fact, the bureau guarantees not to disclose any information collected from or about specific individuals until 2072 - if ever, he said.
Clingman added that no information will be given to any government agency, including the Internal Revenue Service or the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
"We're not interested in whether residents are citizens or not," he said. "There's nothing on the questionnaire that asks about a resident's legal status or citizenship. We're only interested in determining that an individual is living in a certain place at a certain time."
Census staff say they hope that all West Marin residents will cooperate with their efforts to collect accurate data, which is used by government agencies to plan local health-care services, school programs, day care centers, housing programs, water-treatment facilities, and transportation systems.
The count also affects political representation for an area, as districts are redrawn based on the counts.
West Marin residents historically have been undercounted. In the 1990 census, low-income residents and the homeless were underrepresented, and probably half the Latinos living here weren't counted at all. Roughly a third of all residents here were uncounted during the 1980 census, and in 1970, the entire town of Dillon Beach was apparently overlooked.
The 1980 census was a disaster for West Marin, said Carol Friedman, executive director at the Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station. "The questionnaires were mailed to people's street addresses, rather than to their postoffice boxes. So many people didn't receive their questionnaires at all."
Census information has an effect on the whole nonprofit sector, Friedman explained. "The census figures are used over and over again - not just for government funding, but for legislation. It helps all of us if we have accurate information."
A full headcount means adequate funding for West Marin's health-care clinics, said John Severson, executive director of Coastal Health Alliance, which includes the Point Reyes Clinic, Bolinas Family Practice, and Stinson Beach Medical Center.
"For us, undercounting discourages funding," Severson said. "It may cause us to lose our Health Professional Shortage Area designation, and our Medically Underserved Population designation."
These two designations allow the Coastal Health Alliance to receive higher levels of Medical and Medicare reimbursements, Severson explained.
In addition, he said, the designations make the three clinics eligible for State Rural Health Development Program funding. "The state funds in particular are the backbone of how we are able to see uninsured patients on a sliding-fee scale."
Low-income families who need health care and other social services are especially affected by census data, he continued. "The percentage of people below poverty, according to census info, is one of the factors in the allocation of Community Development Block Grant funds. These are federal funds that come to Marin County that are used to support some community services and improvements to local facilities."
In short, he asserted, West Marin's general health depends on an accurate census in 2000.
Hoping to ensure that Marin gets a precise and complete census, county planning staff this fall will review the addresses compiled by the Census Bureau and add any changes, Clingman said. Like the Census Bureau, the county is obliged to keep all information confidential, he said.
Will county planning staff use the census address list to track down residents living in non-permitted or substandard homes?
"Absolutely not," said Supervisor Steve Kinsey. "There won't be a single home that will be vulnerable to county action as a result of census activities."
Yet residents of these homes are understandably wary of the county, and the partnership between the county and the Census Bureau sounds like a setup "for a fox guarding a chicken coop," Kinsey said. "But there will be no enforcement on land-use issues. It is in the county's greater interest to get a good count."
To aid in the process, the county plans to convene a "Complete Count Committee," with representatives from towns throughout Marin, Kinsey said.