City census team partners with COVID testing corps for Queens outreach
/
Amit S. Bagga, the deputy director of the NYC Census 2020 initiative, talks with Jackson Heights residents about the Census on Roosevelt Avenue Wednesday. Eagle photo by Rachel Vick
By Rachel Vick
Two vital outreach teams have joined forces to ensure Queens residents get their fair share of federal funding while fighting a resurgence of COVID-19.
The NYC Census team canvassed Elmhurst and Jackson Heights with the Test and Trace Corps during a citywide day of action Wednesday to promote free COVID-19 testing and urge people to complete the 2020 Census.
“Getting tested and filling out the Census are the only ways in which Queens and New York City are going to be able to recover and rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Amit S. Bagga, deputy director for the NYC Census 2020 initiative. “Now more than ever, we need our fair share of money, power, and respect that only the Census can bring us.”
Click here to visit Census2020.gov and complete the brief form entirely online.
There are at least 76 COVID-19 test sites located throughout Queens, the Eagle reported Wednesday.
More than a dozen masked volunteers, including several city employees, spread out along Roosevelt Avenue to talk with passersby. They also visited food distribution sites at P.S. 12 and P.S. 69 to promote the importance of the Census and availability of COVID tests.
Some people who walked by said they had been tested or had already completed the census. Others ignored the canvassers.
“I’ve been tested,” one passerby said as Bagga tried to hand her a pamphlet.
“But have you filled out the Census?” he called. The woman kept walking.
Tarik Coles, the chief of staff for State Sen. Jessica Ramos, participated in the effort and said flyers and signs could be enough to influence people to complete the Census — an endeavor that takes less than 10 minutes.
“With flyers, even if someone just puts it down on the subway or bus, it gets seen“ Coles said.
The masked canvassers distributed flyers in multiple languages to target immigrant communities disproportionately affected by COVID. Queens’ immigrant communities were also significantly undercounted in the 2010 Census, which directly affected funding for medical institutions like hospitals and clinics.
Jackson Heights has a relatively high self response rate of roughly 70 percent, but nearby Corona has one of the lowest rates in Queens, at roughly 40 percent, NYC Census 2020 data shows. The city has specifically targeted Corona and Elmhurst to raise the response rate, achieving a 5.6 percent increase in Corona and a 12.6 percent increase in Elmhurst from the last week of June to the first week of July.
Queens’ overall self response rate was 53 percent as of July 6, below both the state average and the borough’s 2010 results, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The current nationwide response rate is 61.9 percent.
The COVID-19 outbreak has forced NYC Census staff to shift their efforts to engage New Yorkers. On July 2, a census outreach team visited McCarren Park in Brooklyn to address people gathered for a daily Black Lives Matter demonstration.
The event was part of a larger effort by NYC Census 2020 to work with Black Lives Matter organizers to explain the impact of the census on Black communities.
New Yorkers can still fill out the Census online or over the phone.
