Planning for the 2020 census is underway, and Marin County officials want residents to get involved in creating an accurate count.
Last February, the Board of Supervisors accepted a $100,000 grant to conduct census outreach activities in Marin. As part of that grant, the Community Development Agency is establishing a “complete count committee” to create targeted messaging for communities they fear will be undercounted.
The United States Constitution requires that every American resident be counted every 10 years. The census helps determine not only how many representatives each state gets in Congress, but how federal, state and county funding are allocated within a region.
Based on census data, Marin receives federal funding for everything from hospitals to affordable housing. The county also uses that data to determine which areas need which services.
“Once we get data, we look at what the average household income of an area is, and where services should be going,” said Kristin Drumm, a senior planner with the agency. “Where are there families? Where are there children? Because a school district may need more facilities.”
For each person who goes uncounted, Ms. Drumm estimates the county loses about $2,000 in funding over a 10-year period. “It does add up,” she said. “One person who doesn’t fill out the census means a loss of overall income, [and] perhaps that person has needs. That’s why it’s important to make sure every person is counted.”
Next year’s census will face particular challenges. As the first “digital census,” the bureau’s goal is for 55 percent of households to submit their responses via the internet. The shift was created to both help reduce the cost of the census and improve response rates. But it could also lead to undercounting residents with limited internet access, and, given public concern about privacy, the county wants to reassure residents that their responses will be kept confidential.
Many are also worried that immigrants may avoid responding to the census; aside from heated rhetoric by the President about immigration, the Trump administration has moved to include a question about citizenship on the 2020 form. (A lawsuit over the constitutionality of the question will likely be heard by the Supreme Court this year.)
In West Marin, where people have post office boxes and limited internet access, it can be especially difficult for the county to reach people, Ms. Drumm said. After evaluating data from the 2010 census—when the Census Bureau estimated the county had a net undercount of 800—her agency identified neighborhoods in San Rafael, Marin City and West Marin that they feared would be particularly vulnerable to undercounting.
A preliminary survey from the bureau identified a range of hard-to-count communities, including racial and ethnic minorities, people unfamiliar with English, those with a lack of internet access and rural residents. Many of these groups have been historically undercounted: in the 2010 census, over 100,000 Latino residents in California were left out.
To help ensure that potentially undercounted communities are given the resources and messaging needed to ensure an accurate count, the county’s census committee will divide into subgroups focusing on different aspects of outreach, such as language barriers and internet connectivity. Ms. Drumm said that all residents are invited to serve on the committee itself and that interested people not on the committee are also welcome to attend meetings. Per the conditions of the county grant, the group has 60 days to come up with strategic outreach plan.
The first Complete Count Committee meeting will be held on Friday, March 8 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Albert J. Boro Community Center (50 Canal Street), in San Rafael.