2010 US Census Address Canvassing starts tomorrow

[Tender Branson]

Census Workers to Verify Addresses in the U.S.

First Major 2010 Census Operation to Employ 140,000

The Census Bureau will launch a massive operation on March 30 to verify and update more than 145 million addresses as it prepares to conduct the 2010 Census.

Nationwide, more than 140,000 census workers will participate in the address canvassing operation, a critically important first step in assuring that every housing unit receives a census questionnaire in March 2010. All information is kept confidential. The countdown to the 2010 Census is officially one year out on April 1.

“A complete and accurate address list is the cornerstone of a successful census,” said Tom Mesenbourg, acting director of the U.S. Census Bureau. “Building on the achievements of the 2000 Census, we have been testing and preparing for the 2010 count all decade, and we’re ready to fulfill our constitutional mandate to count everyone living in the United States.”

The first publicly visible activity of the 2010 Census is ahead of schedule. Address canvassing kicks off a week earlier than originally planned and should conclude by mid-July. The operation will use new hand-held computers equipped with GPS to increase geographic accuracy. The ability to capture GPS coordinates for most of the nation’s housing units will greatly reduce the number of geographic coding errors caused by using paper maps in previous counts.

“The primary goal of the census is to count everyone once, only once, and in the right place,” Mesenbourg said. “Because the census is used for reapportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the distribution of more than $300 billion in federal dollars every year to state and local governments, it’s essential to get this first step right.”

Over the last several years, the Census Bureau has been actively working on updating its geographic databases and master address files. From implementing the Local Update of Census Address program where more than 11,500 tribal, state and local governments participated in a review of the Census Bureau’s address list for their area, to increasing the precision of the GPS mapping, many advances have been made to compile the most comprehensive listing of addresses in the nation.

The address canvassing operation will be conducted out of 151 local census offices across the U.S, with most offices beginning on April 6. In most cases, census workers will knock on doors to verify addresses and inquire about additional living quarters on the premises. This is the first census to include group quarters (such as dormitories, group homes, prisons and homeless shelters) in the address canvassing operation, which should improve both the accuracy and coverage of the final count.

There will be one final opportunity to add new home construction in early 2010 prior to the mailing of the census questionnaires.

Census workers can be identified by the official Census Bureau badge they carry. During the address canvassing operation, census workers may ask to verify a housing structure’s address and whether there are additional living quarters on the property. 

2010 Census workers will never ask for bank or social security information. All census information collected, including addresses, are confidential and protected by law. By law, the Census Bureau cannot share respondents’ answers with the FBI, the IRS, CIA, Welfare, Immigration, or any other government agency. No court of law or law enforcement agency can find out respondents’ answers. All Census Bureau employees — including temporary employees — take an oath for life to keep census information confidential. Any violation of that oath is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and five years in prison.

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/2010_census/013441.html

Factsheet:

http://2010.census.gov/2010census/pdf/AD_CAN_Fact_Sheet.pdf

It means each Census worker will check 10 adresses every day ...

[Rowan]

So, if these people show up at my house do I have to answer their questions, or can I just shut the door in their face for bothering me?

[Tender Branson]

So, if these people show up at my house do I have to answer their questions, or can I just shut the door in their face for bothering me?

Not sure if it is mandatory to cooperate in the address verification process.

I only know that it is mandatory to cooperate in the actual April 1, 2010 Census by answering the questionnaire and mailing it back.

[Tender Branson]

Anybody been contacted yet by the Census Workers ?

...

Anyway:

Obama picks new US Census Bureau Director

President Obama has picked Robert M. Groves, a prominent survey researcher, to lead the Census Bureau, less than a year before the 2010 census begins.

The White House made the announcement yesterday. If confirmed as the agency's director, Groves faces formidable managerial and political concerns surrounding the constitutionally mandated head count.

Next year's census will cost at least $15 billion, more than any previous count. The bureau is under pressure from Congress and advocacy groups to provide a more accurate tally of Hispanics and other minority groups than in the past.

The bureau received $1 billion in stimulus funding to help prepare for the census and will devote up to $250 million for advertising and outreach programs to help boost participation levels among traditionally undercounted groups, mostly minorities in urban areas.

Groves, 60, served as the bureau's associate director from 1990 to 1992 and holds dual professorships at the universities of Michigan and Maryland as part of the Joint Program in Survey Methodology. He is a native of Kansas City, Mo., and once worked as a guard in the Vermont state prison system.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/02/AR2009040203725.html

[Tender Branson]

Tent cities pose challenges for US census

By Sarah O’Connor in Washington
Published: April 2 2009

The quality of the US census may be undermined because of rising numbers of people living in garages, tents, basements and motels as the financial crisis deepens, key organisations working with the Census Bureau have warned.

This week the government started its attempt to count every person living in the US – a once-a-decade task that determines how much federal funding each state receives, as well as how many seats each gets in the House of Representatives.

But non-profit organisations working with the Census Bureau say rising foreclosures have caused such dislocation that it will be much harder this time to locate and survey everyone.

“Many people now who have lost their homes to foreclosure are doubling up with relatives, with other families. They might be living in motels . . . tent cities are popping up,” said Terry-Ann Lowenthal, a consultant for many non-profit organisations co-operating with the bureau on the 2010 census. “All of these new living situations create really significant challenges to traditional counting operations.”

One in nine US homeowners with a mortgage was behind on home loan ­payments or in some stage of foreclosure by the end of last year and reports are growing of the desperate measures to which people are turning when they lose their homes. Almost 300,000 homes received foreclosure filings in February alone, according to RealtyTrac.

There is little data on the rise in “non-traditional” housing, which is something the Census Bureau will generate for the first time as it seeks people out this year.

“Some of the first really hard data we have will come from this census, and it’s a big concern, there’s no question about it,” said Burton H. Reist, assistant to the associate director for communications at the bureau.

The bureau has always sought to reach what it calls “hard to count” populations, which include the homeless and illegal immigrants. It hopes to use the same strategies this time, including sending surveyors to areas where there are no formal addresses and setting up walk-in centres for people to go and fill in their forms.

But these special operations, which sit on top of the standard postal census, are expensive. The bureau says it is confident it has the resources it needs. This year’s stimulus bill gave it enough money to hire 2,000 additional field partnership employees to help reach ­people who are hard to count. More than 140,000 census workers this week started fanning out across the country to canvass addresses, and by next year the bureau will employ more than 1m people to carry out the government’s largest peacetime operation.

“Yes there are dislocations that concern us [and] there are new challenges,” said Mr Reist, “but it’s not the kind of challenge we haven’t already thought of and already prepared for.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8bca4f8e-1fb8-11de-a1df-00144feabdc0.html

[Tender Branson]

Advocates Want Halt on Immigration Raids to Ensure Accurate Census

Some lawmakers are calling anew for the U.S. to relax its immigration laws -- not to provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants, but to ensure statistical accuracy.

The calls come as the Census Bureau prepares to kick off the 2010 Census. Critics argue that unless the government is willing to relax immigration laws, millions of people -- afraid to their share their personal information -- will be left out of the count.

U.S. Rep. William Clay, D-Mo., who chairs a House oversight subcommittee on the Census, said he plans to ask the Obama administration to suspend immigration raids over the next year.

He wants the raids put on hold so illegal immigrants don't worry that sharing accurate information with Census workers could somehow expose them to punishment, even deportation.

"There are many people -- Hispanics, African-Americans, whites, Asians -- who have an irrational fear of government, who distrust government, who don't believe that if they give the federal government personal information, that that information is not going to be confidential," said Arturo Vargas, of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

The kind of move Clay is proposing has been done before -- in 2000, and even earlier.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, was working for the border patrol ahead of the 1990 Census when the orders came down to suspend some enforcement efforts.

"It distorts the count because people might be apprehensive about answering the door, or reporting accurately how many people are living in a house or residence or an apartment, or those kinds of things -- at least that was the rationale," Reyes explained.

But the call to pull back the reins on immigration enforcement is opposed by many of Clay's colleagues, including the ranking Republican on the House oversight committee.

"We're not talking about one day of not doing raids. We're talking about a period of time. Is that a week, a month or a whole year? We cannot suspend law enforcement," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

The Obama administration has sought a freeze on arrests of illegal immigrants, upending an enforcement policy that was in widespread use during the last years of the Bush administration.

There has only been one mass arrest of immigrants since Obama took office, which came as a shock to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who ordered a review of the incident. All but one of the illegal immigrants arrested in the February raid were released and given legal work permits.

Opponents of the move to relax immigration laws say that given the national security threats facing the nation, asking law enforcement officers not to do their jobs is not an option.

Republicans estimate the government will spend tens of millions of dollars this year targeting immigrant communities with the message that anything they share with the Census Bureau will not be used against them.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/06/advocates-want-halt-immigration-raids-ensure-accurate-census/