MAKE THEM COUNT YOU! How Regional Intermediaries Are Reaching Illinois' Hard-To-Count Populations

by Suzanne Hanney

The State of Illinois is spending $29 million on U.S. census outreach and education - more per capita than any state in the U.S. - because getting more people to answer the government’s questions is worth billions of dollars in federal money and up to two representatives in Congress.

“One of the tag lines we’ve been using is ‘Make them count you.’ Completing the census is an act of resistance to not being heard,” said Regan Sonnabend, vice president of marketing and communications and census director at the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago. The YWCA is a “Regional Intermediary” (RI) in the state’s hub-and-spoke plan to blanket Illinois with “trusted messengers,” or community groups that will help their populations understand and complete the census, which is online for the first time. The YWCA received $1 million of the $8.9 million state money allocated to the Chicago region and has subcontracted with All Chicago Making Homelessness History, Howard Brown Health Center, AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Center on Halsted, Equality Illinois, Women’s Justice Institute, LaCasa Norte, SGA Youth & Family Services, the LGBT Chamber, Affinity Community Services, Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus and the South Asian American Policy & Research Institute (SAAPRI), to reach the homeless and LGBTQ communities.

These efforts began months ago, so the shutdowns due to the COVID-19 outbreak have caused “a small speed bump we’re confident we’re able to overcome,” Sonnabend said March 16 after an Illinois Department of Human Services webinar with Regional Intermediaries.

Although April 1 is still census day, people have until the end of June to self-respond, so the hope is that subcontractors can reschedule face-to-face assistance days in a few weeks to complete the 2020 census – the first to be done online. “We’re kind of replacing in-person efforts for the next few weeks with digital and direct mail,” she added. “This does not need to be that much of a roadblock to the census since people can complete it over the phone and the internet.”

Direct mail is not to be underestimated, she said. Most of the YWCA’s subcontractors have significant mailing lists and people will be at home, where they can get this information by snail mail, phones (which often have internet access) and social media.

10 Because schools are shifting to e-learning, Comcast is offering its Internet Essentials program free to new low-income users for the next two months amid the outbreak instead of the regular $9.95 monthly fee. The program is offered free to families of students who receive free or reduced lunches (www.internetessentials.com) and census efforts are an unintended beneficiary, Sonnabend said.

“One thing we’ve really embraced is that completing the census is not just a civic duty, it’s a civil right,” Sonnabend said. “You have the right to be counted and to be included for congressional representation.” Besides federal money for schools, school lunches, roads, Pell grants and more, census data also influences how private dollars are spent.

Perhaps a food store wants to open on the South Side but is deterred because of low population numbers – the result of an undercount, she said. “That data will stay there for the next 10 years” - until the 2030 census.

Poverty and lack of English language proficiency are two factors that typically make people “hard to count,” and many more people simply don’t understand the importance of the census, Sonnabend said. Moreover, across the board, community groups are working to overcome mistrust in government.

Although a proposed citizenship question was eliminated from the census, for example, people remain concerned that their answers are indeed confidential. (They are – see opening story.) “If your family was afraid of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) coming to the door, would you take this chance?” Sonnabend asked rhetorically.

Many of the other census deterrents come down to cultural nuances, many of them overlapping. La Casa Norte, for example, serves youth and families experiencing homelessness. But many of its youth are homeless because they are LGBT -- and have been kicked out, Sonnabend said. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has done a public service announcement for the YWCA in its role as a census RI. Social media, emails, e-newsletters and advertising through outlets geared to their community are still other methods the subcontractors are sharing the work of getting the word out.

A message that really resonated in brainstorming sessions with officials of the various groups, Sonnabend said, was “Come out, be counted.”

LGBT people are hard to count because they are more than just their sexual orientation and gender identity, “so we see higher rates of poverty, mental health concerns, substance abuse, a lot of really big concerns,” said Greg Storms, manager of foundation and government relations at the Center on Halsted. “There is also a general mistrust of government similar to people of color or with disabilities who have been oppressed by government systems because LGBT have as well, especially with the current administration, which is quite antagonistic to the LGBT community.”

Some of the hardest people to reach, Storms said, are LGBT people with additional identities: minority or HIV-positive status, youth, seniors. The youth would have been rejected by their families when they came out, which often led to becoming homeless. LBGT youth account for 40 percent of the homeless youth population; they are eight times more likely to be homeless than straight youth.

Seniors may be just as isolated, going all the way back to rejection by their families upon coming out, he said. Contrary to the affluent gay stereotype, many seniors may have faced workplace discrimination and struggled all their lives to have good paying jobs, so they may not have accumulated savings. They may also not have a partner or children – the support systems that many straight people have.

“The challenge is that most nursing homes and other spaces for older adults are not set up to be supportive of LGBT people, so we see a significant number who need to go back into the closet if they are living in that space. They can’t truly be themselves,” Storms said.

With one or two congressional seats at risk in Illinois, Storm says, “Political representation in a state that does tend to be blue goes so far in supporting our community’s needs and concerns at a federal level.” Two questions about sexual orientation and gender identity were removed from the census, which many people see as an attack on the LGBT community.

“That is information about our community that is essential for every facet of life, research or public programs, work that Center on Halsted does, funding for HIV services statewide,” Storm said. “When that is removed, we become erased.”

Center on Halsted distributed literature prior to the census and will block out all 20 computers in its cyber center to help both youth and seniors complete the census. The message Storm seeks to convey to the LGBT community about the census is not just about personal representation, “as important as that is. It’s important that our community represent and that we maintain and hopefully grow the programs and services that our community needs.”

Yet another trusted messenger is All Chicago Making Homelessness History, which also is the collaborative applicant for the Chicago Continuum of Care, the 100 organizations and individuals that apply for annual federal funding against homelessness. In 2018, that meant $68 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for 167 programs.

All Chicago maintains Chicago’s Dashboard to End Homelessness on its website, which as of March 6 showed 8,857 people in a mix of permanent and supportive housing, shelters, and the streets. According to its website, there were nearly 5,500 people on the streets or in shelters on an average night in 2018.

Working with seven partner agencies (Featherfist, Heartland Alliance Health, Franciscan Outreach, Thresholds, The Night Ministry, A Safe Haven and Salvation Army) All Chicago coordinated an email campaign starting in mid-March to encourage those in permanent housing to complete the census. It also coordinated efforts with partner agencies to unsheltered people through the end of the month. During the actual census count days March 30-31 and April 1, All Chicago plans to assist the U.S. Census Bureau, whose workers will be doing a 24-hour count of those living outside.

“People who are experiencing homelessness are typically living on the streets or are in temporary living situations, which puts them at a disadvantage for being counted through the U.S. Census Bureau’s usual means,” said Nicole Bahena, All Chicago vice president of community partnerships, in an email. “Without a permanent place to live, they will not receive an invitation or any census materials by mail, or have someone knock on their door, which are the Census Bureau’s primary ways of getting a complete count.

“Additionally, people living on the streets often can’t be located because they hide away from public places to avoid being bothered by strangers or police,” Bahena continued. “People not trained or experienced in working with people living on the streets – like U.S. Census Bureau staff – won't know where to look. As a result, we are providing information on typical 'hot spots,' where people who are experiencing homelessness congregate in hopes Census Enumerators will be able to provide a more accurate and complete count. We are also helping build awareness among this population that being counted matters, and could bring additional resources such as housing and food assistance. People who otherwise wouldn’t know about the Census can then choose to be counted by calling the Census hotline, or completing a form online. This will ensure the most complete count for Chicago.” completing is not just a civic duty, it’s a civil right -Regan Sonnabend, YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago

South Asians are hard to count, said Shobhana Johri Verma, executive director of SAAPRI, because their numbers are growing so quickly. People from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan numbered 242,000 after the 2010 census, a 55 percent increase from the decade before.

Although South Asians are stereotyped as engineers and doctors, the truth is they also have varied levels of income and barriers associated with gender and sexual orientation, English language proficiency, and comfort levels around civic engagement. There are many undocumented people and an overall lack of trust in government.

“If I do share my information, will the census bureau share it?” Verma said she often hears.

SAAPRI is taking a two-pronged approach. They are meeting senior citizens where they are, such as the Hamdard Health Center, 1542 W. Devon Ave., holding workshops about the census and how it will benefit the community, helping seniors to fill out the census online and letting them know they can also do it over the phone. SAAPRI volunteers have knocked on doors with the Indo American Center and worked with Metropolitan Asian Family Services.

At least two of its team of six volunteers rotates attendance at faith-based events and everything related to the South Asian community, Verma said. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the March 23 Holi festival of colors at Navy Pier was one of these events. However, Navy Pier is now closed until April 2 at least. the census is not just a civic duty, it’s a civil right , YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago

SAAPRI has also reached out to two groups who would otherwise not have known they should fill out the census: South Asian professionals here on visas, working in banking or IT jobs; and college students.

The professionals had wrongly thought they have to be citizens to complete the census when SAAPRI has hosted workshops arranged through their employers.

Young people, meanwhile, are hard to count because of their mobility and their attachment to their phones rather than to a place. College students may think that their parents will fill out the census for them, but the truth is that they are supposed to do it themselves, wherever they are April 1. Before the COVID-19 shutdown, SAAPRI had hosted workshops for students at the University of Illinois Chicago, the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.

However, as the pandemic unfolded and campuses sent students home to study online, workshops with DePaul University and Illinois Institute of Technology were unable to be scheduled. Northeastern Illinois University and Loyola were also stalled in-process, Verma said.

“Direct engagement has the best impact, but we can’t discount the value of digital outreach, which is what we are now strategizing,” she said. SAAPRI will use an online newsletter and platforms like Whats App favored by South Asian seniors: Facebook, Linked In and Instagram for college students.

SGA Youth & Family Services works in Roseland, a hard-tocount African American neighborhood that has lost services as a result; and in Latino neighborhoods such as Back of the Yards, Brighton Park, Little Village and Pilsen, where language and trust are barriers, said Diana Perez, census coordinator. Again, while the citizenship question didn’t wind up on the census, it has made people afraid of giving their information to the government, regardless of their immigration status.

SGA has been going into schools, working particularly with those in 8th grade and above, since they will likely be the ones to help their parents fill out the online census. It has worked with up to seven nonprofits such as Pilsen Wellness and Pilsen Neighborhood Council to do presentations on the importance of the census.

SGA provides early Head Start, job placement for young people not in school, as well as mental health and substance abuse treatment. Head Start and early Head Start funding are based on population, so SGA’s message is that “without their participation, programs their children are already participating in will lose funding,” Perez said.

SGA was planning to have an all-day event April 1 at Pilsen Parent University, 2001 S. Throop St. Computers and assistance in completing the census were going to be available. However, with the coronavirus, SGA staff were working at home until possibly the end of March, so efforts were redirected toward emails and social media, Perez said.

“We emphasize the census information is confidential and people should be able to participate,” Perez said. “In the end we have to fight for our neighborhoods and what belongs to us, especially resources that could benefit everyone in the community.”