Gulf Coast Communities and the Census
The census is especially important to people whose communities were devastated by the natural and man-made disasters of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. These communities have a lot at stake in getting counted accurately and getting the services, financial help, and investments that they need to continue on the road to recovery.
It's extremely important to show that people are returning home and rebuilding. At the same time, communities affected by Hurricane Katrina face unique hurdles to getting an accurate count, including houses and neighborhoods that are still waiting to be rebuilt and the large number of people who are still displaced from their homes and living in temporary housing.
What's at Stake
Here's what's at stake: In fiscal year 2007, Louisiana received $11.6 billion; Mississippi, $5.6 billion; and Alabama, $5.9 billion in federal funds for a wide range of critical programs and services, based at least partly on census data. On average, states receive roughly $1,200 annually, or $12,000 over a decade, for each person counted in the census; for some states in distress, such as Louisiana, that can be as high as $2,695 per person every year in funds that contribute to transportation, education, housing, health care, public safety, and more.
An Accurate Count Will Ensure Full Representation
An accurate census count would ensure that states and communities hit by Hurricane Katrina are fully represented in Congress and state legislatures, where important decisions are made about programs to help displaced families and businesses. An inaccurate count would leave people with less of a voice in their government and their future – and leave Gulf Coast communities less able to get resources needed for rebuilding
For example, New Orleans lost more than half its population after Katrina hit in 2005. Before the flooding, New Orleans had 484,674 people. In the past couple of years, the city has been growing again, and the Census Bureau estimated that between the middle of 2007 and the middle of 2008, it was the fastest growing city in America, and had reached a population of 311,853.
But that growth is concentrated in wealthier areas; poorer neighborhoods are experiencing slower return and rebuilding, and in some parishes the number of vacant and blighted residences has actually increased since last fall. According to a Brookings Institution report published this January, "tens of thousands of residential, commercial and institutional buildings remain damaged and unoccupied."
An Accurate Count Will Help Rebuilding Efforts
Accurate census data could prevent still-suffering communities from being further disadvantaged by an undercount. At the same time, that data may provide solid evidence that some communities are being underserved by current rebuilding and recovery efforts.
We are calling on the Census Bureau to commit sufficient resources to deal with the extraordinary problems that rapid and uneven population growth and recovery pose to getting an accurate count.
But we simply cannot count on the Census Bureau and cash-strapped state and local governments to solve this problem. It is vitally important for community-based organizations in Gulf Coast communities to partner with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund to make sure that everyone who is returning and rebuilding get counted – and to be sure that households and neighborhoods are not written off just because it's difficult to determine where people are living.
People who have been let down by their government have a chance to stand up for themselves and their communities by helping to make sure that they and their neighbors are counted in the 2010 census.
