Replacing fear with facts: Our future depends on a complete Census count

New York City has ramped up efforts to engage communities to ensure a complete 2020 Census Count. Photo via nyc.gov.

By Julie Menin and Blair Horner

Special to the Eagle

In just one month, New Yorkers will be asked to participate in a once-in-a-decade exercise in that actually does determine our future.

Billions of dollars for education, healthcare, housing, jobs, and transportation are on the line, as are up to two congressional seats here in New York. Despite the fact that the census is easy, safe, and so very important, there remains a lot of confusion about what it is, and, in many cases, fear around participating in it, especially stemming from the now-defunct citizenship question the Trump Administration unsuccessfully tried to add.

To ensure a complete count in 2020, our top priority is to replace fear with facts about the Census.

First — it’s just 10 simple questions. The census doesn’t ask about your immigration status, your income, and it doesn’t ask what your Social Security number is. The census asks about where you live, how many people are in your household, what type of housing you have, and a few basic questions about your background. In addition, your responses to the Census are protected by one of the strongest federal privacy laws that exists.

Your personal information cannot be shared by the Census Bureau with anyone — not other government agencies, not law enforcement, and not even your landlord. The penalties for breaking this law are up to 5 years in prison and $250,000 in fines — not a risk worth taking. By law, census data can never be used against you, and its primary use is to serve as the basis for the rightful distribution of resources and political representation.

Replacing fiction with facts is going to take some work. That’s why the de Blasio Administration, in partnership with the Council Speaker Johnson, the City Council Census Task Force, and CUNY,  along with the library systems, and more than 160 trusted local, community-based organizations across the city has invested an unprecedented $40 million in the New York City Complete Count Campaign — a first-of-its-kind endeavor to achieve a complete and accurate count here in New York City and the largest such municipal initiative nationwide.

We are partnering with local, community organizations because we know that’s how we’re going to build trust with New Yorkers. Through these groups, we’ll be able to more effectively convey what the census is and why’s it so important, helping our neighbors participate in the census with confidence and encouraging other New Yorkers to do the same, especially in our historically undercounted communities and populations.

So how are we going to do this? We’ve got a lot of strategies, and community organizing is at the center of them. On  February 11, NYC Census 2020 is hosting “Teach-in Tuesday,” a day on which, in collaboration with many of our partners, we are hosting more than 60 civil-rights-style teach-ins across the five boroughs where New Yorkers can get all the facts about the 2020 Census: what the Census will ask, the many different ways you can respond (including online and by phone for the first time), and how Census Bureau door-knockers can be identified.

Fighting fear, misinformation, and disinformation is going to require speaking the truth and spreading facts, not rumors. On March 12, we’re going to have a singular opportunity to actually determine how we’re going to fight for our share of the resources and representation that are rightfully ours. Go to nyc.gov/census to learn more and to sign up to help spread the word.

We have one chance to make over a decade of difference –  let’s make it count!

Julie Menin is the director of NYC Census 2020. Blair Horner is executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG).