YOU COUNT!

by Suzanne Hanney

YOU COUNT! What Census Results Will Mean for Illinois

April 1 is coming and the State of Illinois is no fool about census day. Illinois is predicted to lose one seat in the House of Representatives due to population loss -- and officials don't want to lose a second congressperson because they can't count everyone who lives here.

In addition, billions of dollars in federal funds over the next decade are pegged to the population count. In FY2016 alone, Illinois received $34.33 billion through 55 federal programs guided by census data: for schools, school lunches, roads, parks, Pell Grants, public transportation, hospitals, social programs and more, according to "Based on Counting for Dollars 2020" from George Washington Univesity. Failure to count everyone means the state will have less money to take care of them.

In an effort to avoid that situation, Gov. J.B. Pritzker obtained $29 million from the Illinois General Assembly through the bipartisan FY20 budget for a statewide census outreach and education effort housed in the Illinois Department of Human Services. Although California has spent more overall, the $29 million census appropriation is the highest per capita in the nation, said Marishonta Wilkerson, statewide census director.

“The governor and the legislature know it’s important,” Wilkerson said. “It’s expected Illinois will lose one seat and we don’t want to lose two. We think we are the most proactive state: California, here, maybe Ohio. California started three years ago. We have a new governor and got started when he got here.”

Working with Northern Illinois University’s Center for Governmental Studies, the state census office used variables commonly associated with low response (including age, housing, income and lack of internet access) to create an Illinois HardTo-Count Index (IL HTC Index). Wilkerson itemized some of these hard to count people:

• Racial and ethnic minorities such as African Americans and Latinx

• Children, from newborns to age 5

• Foreign-born individuals

• People with limited English skills

• Undocumented immigrants

• People living at or below poverty

• Adults over age 85

• People who lack high speed internet access, since the 2020 census will be the first to be done online “Trust has probably always been an issue and is perhaps more so now with police interaction and so many immigrants,” Wilkerson said. “People are scared that if there are more people living there than on the lease, we will turn it over to the landlord or send it to the courts.”

However, the Census Bureau is legally prohibited from sharing personal information with the CIA, the FBI, Homeland Security or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “The last time one of them asked, it went all the way to the Supreme Court, which said no,” she said.

The $29 million education and outreach campaign will operate in a hub-and-spoke fashion. “Regional Intermediaries” (RIs) have subcontracted with smaller agencies -- “trusted messengers” as the state calls them -- that reach out to their communities and get them to self-report on the census or help them to complete it online between March 12 and April 30. (see page 10)

“We know it takes several touches to go from education to activity,” Wilkerson said. “We hope people will see a flyer, a billboard, social media, go to an event, or their pastor will talk in church and they will get engaged.”

Gearing up toward the April 1 “snapshot” of the U.S. population, invitations were mailed March 12 to 20 that urged people to complete the census online, followed by reminder postcards between March 16 and April 3, Wilkerson said. Reminder letters will go out April 8 to 16, then a paper questionnaire, and a final reminder April 20-27.

In May, U.S. Census Bureau workers will make another attempt. If unsuccessful, they will attempt to get information from a proxy, such as a neighbor.

“The point is to increase the self-response rate because it is most accurate,” Wilkerson said. “Your neighbor doesn’t know if your niece moved in March 28 or your boyfriend moved out. The best responder is the head of the household.”

Children under age 5, meanwhile, are the most undercounted group in the nation, so there is an awareness campaign around them. The rationale among responders is possibly, “they don’t use that much money, so they don’t count” or the toddlers may be shuttling between mom and grandmother, Wilkerson said. Wherever they are on April 1 is where they should be counted.

Because people are more likely to open the door to people who look like them, the Illinois Department of Human Services is also spreading the message that people who take U.S. Census Bureau jobs from April to June will not lose Medicaid, TANF, SNAP (food stamps), child care and AADD benefits, Wilkerson said.

The census bureau needed to hire 80,000 people for Illinois alone in order to have enough boots on the ground to follow up with nonresponding households in May, said Alyssa Johnson, deputy director of the U.S. Census, Chicago region. The jobs pay up to $29.50 an hour and the public can access the assessment for them at 2020census.gov People can also apply in March and work in June. “We will continue to hire through the entire process- February through July,” Johnson said.

Applicants can already have a part-time or full-time job. “The hours are flexible. It is great for college students, seniors, those individuals looking for something short-term,” Johnson said. The eight-state Chicago census region (Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Arkansas, Minnesota), with 53 million individuals and 24 million households, is among the nation’s most challenging, she said. Besides Chicago, it contains St. Louis, with a homeless population above the national average; Detroit, with the largest Middle Eastern population; Milwaukee, with the largest Hmong population; Minnesota and Arkansas with the largest number of Somali and Marshal Islanders, respectively.

Renters, African American and Hispanic males tend to be undercounted while white males and homeowners tend to be overcounted, she said. But gated communities can also pose challenges for census workers.

“There is always a level of distrust, so we rely on our partners to overcome that,” Johnson said of agencies like the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). Her staff speaks 21 different languages and has been on the ground for 16 months.

The nonresponse follow-up period ends July 27 and then moves into a quality check process until the end of September. Census numbers (but NOT addresses, as the state’s Wilkerson stresses) have to be delivered to the President of the United States on December 31. The information will be available for public research and for congressional redistricting on March 30, 2021.

“There is so much to lose with an undercount,” Johnson said. “So many programs are impacted. It’s a once-in-10-year opportunity for people to be counted. That count will stay with us until 2030. When you process that, that’s pretty significant.”