The Recession, People Facing Economic Hardship, and the Census
Community organizations are particularly important during an economic downturn because state and local governments have less money to invest in getting in accurate count. For example, California spent about $25 million to encourage participation in the 2000 census, but because of the state's budget crisis, it will spend less than one-tenth of that money in 2010.
If community organizations don't help to overcome this gap, the state and its harder-to-count communities could lose out on billions of dollars over the next decade.
Nationally, millions of Americans have lost their jobs and many have lost their homes or are in the process of losing them to foreclosure. Many are struggling to deal with debts and creditors, and may fear that giving information to the Census Bureau could expose them to action by debt collectors or others.
Some people may have moved in with relatives or may be sharing housing in ways that violate leases or local ordinances, and may fear that answering honestly about their living arrangements could get them in trouble.
Community-based organizations can provide a trusted source of information about the confidentiality of the census and the importance of an accurate count to people with financial difficulties.
What's At Stake
People who are struggling financially have a big stake in getting counted.
- Census information is used to direct resources - like unemployment insurance, job training, adult education programs, and housing loans for people with low and moderate income - to areas where they are most needed. Here are some federal programs and the amount appropriated each year based on projected need (2007 figures):
- Food stamps – $30.4 billion
- Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers – $16.1 billion
- National School Lunch Program – $8.6 billion
- Head Start – $6.2 billion
- State Children's Insurance Program – $5.5 billion
- Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program – $5.3 billion
- Foster care – $4.5 billion
- Child Care – $2.9 billion
- School Breakfast Program – $2.1 billion
- Communities that have been hard hit by the economic crisis have the most to lose if individuals are not counted and communities miss out on funding for economic development, job training, schools and vocational education, and private business investment
- People who don't get counted can cheat themselves and their neighbors out of services they need, and political representation that could help their communities in the long run.
Confidentiality
Individuals' census information is completely confidential. Government agencies, banks, employers, and credit agencies cannot get access to any person's responses.
- Individuals' census information is protected by the strongest privacy laws we have.
- The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a statement declaring that no other law – not even the PATRIOT Act – overrides the confidentiality of the census.
- No other government agency – not even law enforcement or the courts – can get any person's individual census information for 72 years.
- No private company – no landlord or employer or debt collector – can get any household's census information, even with a court order.
- No other law or agency can override census privacy protections – not the Patriot Act, the IRS, Homeland Security, or ICE.
- Every census worker has to swear an oath to keep information confidential for life, or they face big fines and jail time.
- The only thing to fear about the census is not being counted.
People Who Are Homeless
There are special strategies for counting homeless people.
Counting homeless people is a significant challenge for the Census Bureau, which identifies people and households by canvassing addresses. The Census Bureau does have specific strategies for identifying people at service-based locations like emergency and transitional shelters, soup kitchens, regularly scheduled mobile food vans, and pre-identified non-shelter outdoor locations.
Be Counted forms will also be made available at locations throughout the community for people who believe they haven't been counted.
