Starting mid-August, Santa Barbara County households that had not yet responded to the 2020 census began receiving in-person visits from U.S. census workers to encourage completion.
These workers, called census enumerators, are hired locally, wear personal protective equipment, practice social distancing, and carry special census identification cards. But if you don’t want a stranger knocking on your door during a global pandemic, the easiest way to avoid the visit is to complete the census online or over the phone.
“Some people are wary of someone from the government coming to their door, so we’ve been trying to encourage them that, if you don’t want to have a visit, do it online or over the phone,” Joni Maiden, co-chair of the Santa Barbara County Census 2020 Complete Count Committee, told the Sun. “It’s nine easy questions and doesn’t take very long at all.”
The Complete Count Committee has been ramping up over the last year to get the word out about the once-a-decade population and demographics count, Maiden said.
“It’s a group of local organizations that are government, private entities, and nonprofits that are taking a grassroots approach to educating everyone in our community on the importance of completing the census,” she said.
According to a county press release, Santa Maria and Guadalupe have the lowest completion rates in the county as of Aug. 10. While Buellton, Carpinteria, Goleta, Lompoc, Santa Barbara, and Solvang all hold more than 67 percent completion rates, Santa Maria and Guadalupe both hover around 62 percent.
The census deadline was originally extended to Oct. 31 due to COVID-19, but now the deadline is pushed back slightly to Sept. 30.
Maiden explained why census completion is so vital for the county.
“They use the population data to redraw district lines, so it’s important to have the correct representation,” she said. “The census data is used when they’re determining how many funds different programs get, such as child care programs, education programs, emergency operations, public works, health care—all around the board.”
With the pandemic raging on, Maiden said keeping these programs funded is more important than ever.
“These are the programs that are making a difference right now in the COVID event,” she said. “We’re seeing how important it is to have the proper health care services that we need, and the availability of child care is becoming a big issue. We’re determining what’s going to happen in the next 10 years.”
In the case of an undercount, Maiden added, the county risks losing between $1,500 and $2,000 per person, per year, in funding.
“That means an undercount of just 5 percent equals a loss of $430 million over the next decade,” the county press release stated.
The U.S. Census Bureau also announced on Aug. 14: “In order to supplement our capabilities to send census takers to households in person, the Census Bureau is training census takers to follow up with households by phone,” a press release on the census website states. The bureau will now also contact some low-responding areas via email.
“We’re not just setting the scene for our next 10 years, it’s for our children too,” Maiden said. “California had a big undercount of children under 5 during the last census, so we really want to make sure that everyone, including our children, have the best possible services available.”
This article appears in Aug 20-27, 2020.