The deadline to complete the 2020 Census and be counted is Halloween, so perhaps Vinita Park Mayor James McGee can be forgiven for using a scare tactic.
“I have a liaison going door to door and block watch captains going door to door telling people to fill out their Census forms or they could lose services,” McGee said.
The Census, which is mandated to count every person living in the United States wherever they are living every 10 years, is used to apportion federal funds where they are needed. Any place where the population is undercounted will be underfunded.
“Missouri received approximately $16.5 billion in federal funds in FY2016, which were directly calculated from Census data,” according to the Missouri Foundation for Health. “In fact, for every adult and every child that is not counted, Missouri loses an estimated $1,300 in federal dollars.”
Ethel Byndom, Census coordinator with St. Louis County’s Office of Community Empowerment, reminded the public that the Census Bureau is mandated to count all people living here “regardless of status.”
McGee, whose city had 1,800 residents counted in the 2010 Census, has a Spanish speaker working on the 2020 Census providing public education.
“He is going to Hispanic households telling them to fill out the 2020 Census and letting them know that the information you provide cannot be used against you,” McGee said.
By law, the Census Bureau cannot share the data it collects with other federal or state agencies other than to produce statistics.
Vinita Park is patrolled by the North County Police Cooperative. It’s an indication of the mayor’s confidence in their community policing that he uses a Spanish-speaking police officer to approach Hispanic households for the Census.
North County mayors shared Census strategies on Wednesday, July 15 when the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis convened them with county officials at its Ferguson Empowerment Center.
Ferguson Mayor Ella Jones said her city had been sending around a mobile unit with computers before the pandemic struck. The 2020 Census form can be complete online, via mail and even by phone. Now Ferguson is posting 2020 Census signs in public. Cool Valley Mayor Jayson Stewart said his city is sending reminders about the 2020 Census using the app Next Door.
The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis is doing its part. President and CEO Michael P. McMillan said the agency has passed out 40,000 Census reminders in its weekly mass distribution of food and necessities as part of its COVID-19 relief efforts.
McMillan pointed out that “so many federal bureaucracies essential to our well-being” rely on Census data to apportion funds. The Ferguson Empowerment Center was built on the grounds of the QuikTrip torched during the Ferguson unrest using federal New Market Tax Credits, he said. West Florissant Avenue, where the center is built (and once the site of protests seen all of the world), has been refurbished using federal funds.
Byndom offered her own list of essential services and institutions dependent on Census data. “It helps determine where we build new schools, hospitals and businesses,” Byndom said, “as well as how federal funds are distributed” for things like Medicaid, housing and food programs.
Census data also is used to determine federal representation. All states have two senators, but U.S. representatives are assigned based on population as recorded by the Census. McMillan offered the painful reminder that the St. Louis region lost a confessional district and seat because of a low Census count in 2010.
The St. Louis Regional Chamber projects that 19,000 people in Missouri could go undercounted in 2020 “under a medium risk scenario.”
McGee, for one, is not having it. With the October 31 deadline just over three months away, he said that Vinita Park is at a 60% Census response rate. That just means he is 60% of the way there. He said, “I am looking for 100%.”
Completing the 2020 Census’ nine questions takes less than 10 minutes and can be done online at my2020census.gov, by phone (844-330-2020), or by mailing back the 2020 Census form mailed to you.
