In an attempt to count those left out in the nationwide census ten years ago, the Mission has instituted a committee geared towards including the traditionally undercounted—communities of color.
By counting the population and demographics in every state, city and neighborhood, the US Census determines how an estimated $435 billion in federal funding will be distributed each year, as well as how many congressional representatives will be allocated to each state. For each person not counted, $40,000 in funding over the next ten years will be lost, according to research by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based public policy organization.
But the census is more than an issue of numbers. As Adrienne Pon, executive director of the San Francisco Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs (OCEIA), said, “It’s not just about being counted; it’s about creating your voice, letting people know that you matter.”
Ethnic minorities in San Francisco, and throughout the country, were vastly undercounted in the 2000 Census, resulting in a smaller allotment of much-needed funding for social welfare programs, education and local infrastructure. Lack of awareness prevented many Latinos and other minorities from taking part in the census, according to a study by the PEW Research Center.
Latinos who considered the census to be “very important” for the country were still less likely to participate than their African American and Caucasian counterparts, cited the study.
Felix Fuentes, Outreach and Education Coordinator for the OCEIA, said he and other officials believe that undocumented immigrants fear that their information will be shared with other government agencies, such as ICE. However, a law protects the information and there is no question regarding immigration status. He added that any government official who violates this confidentiality faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
To address residents’ fears, language barriers and other obstacles, Accion Latina established the Mission District Complete Count Committee, a network of trusted community organizations and leaders who will conduct outreach in population segments deemed “Hard to Count” that officials say went uncounted in the last census.
“The interest is to have everybody counted, because the city lost $300 million in 10 years—money that we could have used for social programs, the schools, transportation,” Fuentes said.
The US Census Bureau listed twelve factors that make a district “hard to count,” including: a high population of renters, crowded housing, lack of phones, low levels of education, non-traditional households, homelessness, poverty, dependence on public assistance, unemployment and linguistic isolation.
With approximately 12 percent of the nation’s population, California has more than 30 percent of the Hard-to-Count populations in the nation, according to a 2009 report by the Census Project.
Fuentes explained that by analyzing 2000 Census data, city officials have identified several HTC areas in San Francisco—neighborhoods such as the Tenderloin, Bayview Hunters Point, Chinatown, and the Mission. Each neighborhood was found to have many of the factors listed above.
“We are trying to focus on those areas and come up with activities,” he said. Fuentes himself focuses on hard-to-count areas with large Latino populations, such as the Mission.
At the second meeting of the Mission District Complete Count Committee US Census Bureau and city government representatives discussed strategies with local nonprofits representatives to ensure that everyone in the neighborhood gets counted.
“National ads are fantastic, but nothing is more powerful than you guys,” OCEIA Executive Director Adrien Pon told the Mission-based nonprofit members at the meeting.
Eighteen organizations across San Francisco’s hard-to-count regions each received grants of up to $10,000 from OCEIA to put towards community outreach. Among the recipients are the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Mission-based nonprofits Accion Latina, La Raza Centro Legal, Mission Language Vocational School, Dolores Street Community Services, Jamestown Community Center and Good Samaritan.
Immersed in the daily life of the Mission community, the nonprofit members are readily able to address residents’ concerns and come up with ways to make the census safe, empowering and even fun, rather than difficult and threatening.
“One of the biggest concerns with the census is trust,” said Joel Aguiar, day labor director at La Raza Centro Legal, which houses the SF Day Labor Program and Women’s Collective. He said of the people he works with, “They feel that their information will be given to government officials, immigration.”
Aguiar related that many of the day laborers, like other Latino and immigrant communities, distrust most politicians and government officials due to past persecution.
“Rarely do they [politicians] come to the program, except when they’re running for office. Cops harass them (the laborers) on the streets. ICE officials come to pick them up. It’s hard for them to open up given their previous experiences. So having the connection with nonprofit organizations…like La Raza and other nonprofits, if we come to them and are like, the census is actually not that bad…it’s a totally different experience for them,” he elaborated.
“Also, it’s just not high on their priority list. Among the things that they worry about every day, filling out the census is not going to be one of them,” Aguiar added.
He explained that in the case of many day laborers, “It’s not even going to be mailed to them, because most of them are homeless, so they’re going to have to make an effort…walk to the center or something.”
For those who struggle daily to secure jobs and basic resources, the idea of taking time away from work to fill out government paperwork makes no sense, unless community members understand that participating in the census will bring money and resources back to their neighborhoods and families.
“For our members it’s easier to highlight the importance of it … for the other day laborers, it’s going to take a little bit more outreach and education. We kind of have to meet them where they are,” Aguiar said of LRCL’s efforts to encourage census participation.
He is working with other members of the MDCCC to organize a soccer tournament for on March 13 at Garfield Park that “will be a magnet for them to come, and by chance, learn about the census and be able to address their misgivings.”
In addition, the MDCCC is planning outreach activities at the 16th street and 14th street BART stations on March 20 and 27, respectively.
Aguiar added that La Raza is training eight members—four domestic workers from the Women’s Collective and four male day laborers—to conduct outreach and answer questions about the census.
“They are kind of leaders, and have volunteered extra time and attended extra meetings over the last six months. They’re going to know about the census: how to answer questions and promote it, go to different spaces where a lot of day laborers, even the homeless, are and talk to them about it,” he said.
“That’s likely to be a lot more effective than if the staff members go, because they already have tons of connections with individual persons in those corners,” he concluded.
In order to facilitate wider participation, the Census Bureau reduced its 2010 form to a simple ten questions, as opposed to the 52-question form used in the last census. As in 2000, a Spanish version will be mailed in predominantly Latino neighborhoods like the Mission. In addition, Questionnaire Assistance Centers will be set up throughout the district as spaces where residents can voice concerns and receive help from trained professionals in filling out their forms.