Nonprofit consultant helps agencies reach offline New Yorkers for online Census
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A map of New York City at the Queens Museum. Eagle photo by David Brand
By David Brand
A New York City nonprofit consulting firm is stepping up efforts to connect other agencies with residents in hard-to-count communities ahead of the 2020 U.S. Census — the first to emphasize digital responses.
The Community Resource Exchange, an organization that advises and supports other nonprofits throughout the city, will host four workshops to prepare agencies for the U.S. Census, which begins March 2020.
The first two workshops will take place on Dec. 4 at 9:30 a.m. and Dec. 10 at 3 p.m. at the CRE offices at 42 Broadway, 20th Floor. The organization will soon announce the date and location of a workshop in Queens.
“The 2020 Census brings unique challenges,” said CRE President and CEO Katie Leonberger. “This will be the first digital census with an online approach, which may be compromised because 35 percent of U.S. adults do not have internet access at home.”
The online approach could pose a major problem for hundreds of thousands of Queens residents.
Up to two-thirds of Queens County's current population — more than 1.5 million people — live in hard-to-count neighborhoods, according to the “Census Hard to Count” map created by the CUNY Graduate Center and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. A large proportion of those communities lack reliable internet access.
Nearly 18 percent of Queens households lacked home internet access or had dial-up only connection between 2013 and 2017, according to the latest American Community Survey estimates,. About 6 percent of the households had a cellular data plan only for internet.
“Tracts with limited internet access represent areas where people will need help accessing the internet to apply for census jobs,” the HTC team writes on its website.
Just 61.9 percent of New York City households self-responded to the 2010 census, compared to a nationwide average of 75.8 percent, according to federal data. The turnout was far worse in throughout much of Queens, especially in parts of Southeast Queens, where response rates dipped below 50 percent.
The results of the Census, which takes place every 10 years, determine the amount of federal funding regions receive, as well as the congressional representation of each state. New York State is expected to lose up to two Congressional seats based on population estimates — a problem exacerbated by a low Census response rate.
Local leaders have implored residents to submit their completed forms.
“Every community member must be counted,” said Queens Assemblymember Alicia Hyndman at a recent town hall meeting in Richmond Hill. “We need these dollars to come into the community.”
