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Tent cities pose challenges for US census
By Sarah O’Connor in Washington
Published: April 2 2009 23:31 | Last updated: April 2 2009 23:31
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.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
US part-time workers under pressure - Apr-02US food stamp aid hits record - Apr-02In depth: US downturn - Dec-05But 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.”
By Sarah O’Connor in Washington
Published: April 2 2009 23:31 | Last updated: April 2 2009 23:31
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.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
US part-time workers under pressure - Apr-02US food stamp aid hits record - Apr-02In depth: US downturn - Dec-05But 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.”
