Coronavirus: U.S. Census 2020 count may be affected by pandemic, Lansing-area leaders say
LANSING — Wednesday was Census Day, a once-in-a-decade count of everyone in America, but Miguel Rodriguez was busy packing boxes of food
The coronavirus pandemic has put hundreds of thousands of Michiganders out of work and sickened or killed many others. A stay home order needed to slow the disease also is interrupting the statewide effort to get Michiganders to fill out their Census surveys, which will determine political representation and affect where the federal government sends $675 billion in annual funding for health, nutrition, literacy and other programs.
"That face-to-face contact that is critical in making people feel comfortable filling out the Census," said Rodriguez, executive director of Capital Area Community Services. "We don't get a chance to have that."
The pandemic and skyrocketing unemployment illustrate why responding to the Census is so important, Michigan Statewide Census Director Kerry Ebersole Singh said.
The number of ventilators Michigan received from the federal stockpile was partially influenced by the state's population, she said. That population figure relies on Census responses.
"Such a huge, significant piece of our budget comes in from these federal tax dollars and it goes directly out to communities around the state," Ebersole Singh said. "It's just more important than ever to ensure that we are getting the appropriate allocation of those dollars. The last thing we want to do is leave anything on the table that could be helpful to our communities."
But the pandemic makes it harder for Census workers and advocates to explain that. In-person contact has almost entirely stopped to slow the spread of the disease.
Coronavirus highlights importance of Census
As the novel coronavirus ravages the country, local leaders are reminding people that Census population data leads to money for crucial federal and state programs, like health care and housing relief.
A single Michigander counted by the Census brings in an average of $1,800 in federal funding to their community, officials estimate. The Census also could affect how far residents have to travel for necessities like a hospital, grocery store or pharmacy, since business leaders use population data to determine where to set up shop.
"This touches everything in our state, the programs that the Census helps to fund," Ebersole Singh said.
Response deadline has been extended
The U.S. Census Bureau extended the time people can respond to the survey by two weeks, citing the health and safety concerns Americans are facing because of the coronavirus. The deadline to respond is now Aug. 14 instead of July 31, but people who respond before May 1 are less likely to get a visit from a Census Bureau worker reminding them to fill out the 10-minute questionnaire.
Federal law officially designates Census Day as April 1, but households began receiving mailers in mid-March that explained how to respond to the Census online, by phone or by mail.
This spring, nonprofits and government officials announced a widespread push to get Michigan residents to fill out Census surveys. As Michigan operates under a "stay home, stay safe," order, the pandemic has forced those leaders to shift their approach, like hosting virtual events and reaching people by phone instead of in-person.
Instead of reminding clients to complete their Census in-person, Capital Area Community Services employees are placing brochures in boxes of delivered food, checking in with families who connect and reminding people through emails and newsletters.
Events have been canceled or postponed while some Census educational advertisements, like those on billboards and in magazines, proceed as normal, Rodriguez said.
In-person outreach events have been cancelled
Lansing-area leaders hope restrictions on businesses and gatherings — which were implemented statewide to slow the coronavirus' spread — will be be lifted by this summer so Census promotion can resume in-person at events like block parties. As of Thursday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer planned to extend Michigan's state of emergency by 70 days, although state Sen. Majority Leader Mike Shirkey said that time frame is too long.
A prolonged state of emergency won't automatically extend Whitmer's "stay home" order, which is set to expire April 13, but it will lay the groundwork for the governor to extend that order and other emergency directives. A recent disaster declaration also gives her authority to exercise emergency powers for another 28 days from Wednesday even without the agreement of state lawmakers.
Members of a Lansing Complete Count Committee, dedicated to avoiding an undercount in the city, are working to "completely re-purpose" their outreach plan.
Lansing has $25,000 from the state for Census outreach. It also spent $15,000 in city funding to hire former state Rep. Sam Singh as a Census consultant.
The city is looking at options including a mass text message to Michigan State University students, many of whom live in Lansing, and using geo-fencing to target Facebook advertisements to tracts identified as particularly difficult to count,said Andrea Crawford, Lansing's director of neighborhoods and citizen engagement.
Lansing area could be hard to count
As of March 31, 44.6% of Michiganders had already responded to the Census, which was better than the national self-response rate at 38.4%.
Lansing and East Lansing were slightly behind the rest of the state at 41.9% and 41.2% respectively, federal data showed.
At least six Ingham County census tracts, mostly in Lansing and East Lansing, have been identified as particularly hard to count, with more than 30% of residents not expected to respond initially to mailed 2020 census invitations. That's according to the Census Bureau's Response Outreach Area Mapper, which uses data from the bureau's 2013-17 American Community Survey.
People who are homeless, children under 5, people in poverty, immigrants and racial minorities are among the groups less likely to be counted by the Census, research shows.
East Lansing worries about non-response from college students
That's also true for people who live in group housing, like apartment complexes, senior centers, prisons and dormitories.
Group quarters a particular concern in East Lansing, home to MSU, Michigan's largest university. The Census Bureau instructs people to respond to surveys based on wherever they spend the majority of the year and East Lansing officials are urging tens of thousands of MSU students to list East Lansing as their place of residence.
Most MSU students went back to their home towns after the university cancelled in-person classes last month to slow the spread of the coronavirus. So the city's hat message could be harder to transmit with students scattered across the globe.
"We were worried about an undercount before," East Lansing City Council Member Mark Meadows, a liaison to the city's Complete Count Committee, said. "That worry has been amplified."
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People stuck at home may be a captive audience
Meadows said East Lansing will emphasize electronic advertising and, according to Crawford, those messages could resonate even more while millions of homebound Michiganders are glued to social media and online news.
"Perhaps we have the opportunity to catch a lot of people’s attention because life is pretty much on hold right now," Crawford said.
But, as Marion Owens is well-aware, not everyone has internet access during the pandemic.
Owens directs the Tri-County Office on Aging. For now, that agency has been forced to cancel in-person seminars in which seniors could borrow computers and get help with their Census forms.
The Office on Aging continues to deliver Census brochures to homes through its Meals on Wheels program and in-home care workers will help their clients with the Census if needed, Owens said.
But, because of the coronavirus, volunteers and staff are spending most of their time organizing meal pickups and telephone welfare checks for thousands of seniors in Ingham, Clinton and Eaton counties.
"We're just trying to keep our heads above water," Owens said.
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How to respond to the Census
Federal law prohibits the Census Bureau from releasing individualized data or sharing it with other government agencies. That means the information won't be shared with immigration or law enforcement.
Most households received official mailers from the Census Bureau with instructions explaining how to respond online, by phone or by mail. Some households will also receive paper Census questionnaires by mail.
- Online: Visit my2020census.gov.
- By phone: Call 844-330-2020. The phone lines are open every day from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
- By mail: Return your paper questionnaire using the envelope provided. If you've lost your envelope, you should address your response to: U.S. Census Bureau, National Processing Center, 1201 E. 10th Street, Jeffersonville, IN 47132
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Contact reporter Carol Thompson at (517) 377-1018 or ckthompson@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @thompsoncarolk. Contact reporter Sarah Lehr at slehr@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahGLehr.