[The Concerns of the Hard-to-Count Communities Summary from the Undercount Summit And the Hispanic Federation Forum]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
The Concerns of the Hard-to-Count Communities

Summary from the Undercount Summit
And the Hispanic Federation Forum




18 January 2000



The Honorable Albert Gore
President
United States Senate
Washington, DC  20510

The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert
Speaker
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC  20515

Dear Mr. President and Mr. Speaker:

The Congressional Members of the U.S. Census Monitoring Board have, 
during the past year and a half, devoted hundreds of hours listening 
to, and talking with, a diverse group of true census stakeholders 
throughout the country.  They include state and local governments 
and elected officials; community leaders; and the people who really 
live, work and serve in neighborhoods known to be hard-to-count and 
at risk for being missed in Census 2000.

While the unprecedented efforts of the Census Bureau will reach the 
majority of the households in America, there are still people who 
will not participate in the census. These disproportionately 
include members of poor, minority, urban, and immigrant communities, 
and children that are traditionally missed by the census.  Many 
live in linguistically isolated communities and many are distrustful 
of the government.  They live in America's hard-to-count 
neighborhoods-in the barrios, inner cities, remote rural areas, 
and reservations.  These are the people who most need an accurate 
census for their fair share of political representation and more 
than $180 billion in federal funds for health care, education, 
community development, transportation and many other programs 
that enhance their daily lives. It is these very people, however, 
who are most often missed or overlooked in the Census.

The following report provides a summary of the comments and 
recommendations made by a broad range of census stakeholders with 
whom the Board has met and who participated in an ``Undercount 
Summit'' organized by the Congressional Members of the Board and 
held at the National Press Club in Washington.  The report also 
provides similar observations made by the participants at the 
Hispanic Federation Forum sponsored by the Presidential Members of 
the Board and held in New York City.  The Congressional Members 
also participated in that Forum.

This report summarizes the concerns expressed by the participants 
in the Undercount Summit and the Hispanic Federation Forum that the 
Census Bureau's efforts are not sufficient to encourage people 
living in hard-to-count neighborhoods to participate in the 
census.  The two groups identified barriers to counting hard-to-count 
neighborhoods and populations, and offered several recommendations 
they believe would encourage participation in Census 2000 in 
hard-to-count neighborhoods.  A videotape with highlights of the 
Congressional Members' Undercount Summit is available by calling 
301/457-5080. 

Four of the recommendations mentioned the most include:


   Obtain a waiver or income exemption for persons receiving 
government assistance, including TANF and Food Stamps, for persons 
temporarily employed for the decennial census.  Hiring residents to 
be enumerators in many economically disadvantaged neighborhoods will 
depend on granting such a waiver and many persons and groups, 
including the American Federation of Labor and Congress of 
Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), share this concern. 

   Utilize local residents as "facilitators" to assist 
enumerators in hard-to-count neighborhoods.   Regional Directors 
and Local Census Office (LCO) Managers must have the operational 
freedom to hire trusted persons from the community (who may not 
be able to pass the Bureau's hiring test) to assist the enumerators 
by knocking on the doors and ensuring that residents will have 
the confidence to answer the census.  

   Ensure that bilingual, culturally sensitive persons-
including non-citizens-are hired in linguistically isolated 
neighborhoods.   Non-citizens may have to be hired, either as 
enumerators or "facilitators," to ensure that certain communities 
are counted in Census 2000.  Therefore, the Bureau should do 
everything possible to ensure that LCO Managers can recruit and 
hire culturally sensitive persons to take the census.  The Bureau 
must clarify all hiring guidelines.

   Ensure that neighborhoods that are entirely Spanish 
speaking receive a notice written in Spanish letting the residents 
know that Spanish questionnaires are available and how to receive 
those questionnaires.  Residents in neighborhoods that are entirely 
Spanish speaking, such as Cameron Park colonias, will receive a 
letter written in English alerting them of the census and the 
availability of Spanish-language questionnaires.  The Regional 
Census Centers and the Local Census Offices have the authority to 
deliver notices written in Spanish, or the appropriate dominant 
language, in these neighborhoods.  Clearly, there are a number 
of neighborhoods throughout the country where initial contact in 
their own language will be essential to ensuring that every resident 
is counted.

While the Census Bureau will say that many of the recommendations 
made in this report are being implemented, the comments by the 
participants in the Undercount Summit and the Hispanic Federation 
Forum, as well as the field observations of the Congressional 
Members of the Board, suggest otherwise.

It is our hope that these solutions and suggestions made in this 
report by real people with real concerns will help the Census 
Bureau and result in a census that is fair and accurate to 
every demographic group and most importantly at every geographic 
level-including hard-to-count neighborhoods.

Sincerely,

 				 
J. Kenneth Blackwell				Dr. David W. Murray
Co-Chairman					Congressional Member

 					 
A. Mark Neuman					Joe Whitley
Congressional Member				Congressional Member





Contents


	Letter of Transmittal				   i

I. Background                                              1

II. Summary: Barriers and Concerns		           6

III. Solutions		                                  17

IV. Appendix	                                          22 
			




Background

Listening to the Hard-to-Count Neighborhoods


Because of the importance of the census to every state, every city 
and every person living in America, the Congressional Members of 
the Census Monitoring Board have made an effort to talk with, not 
only the Census Bureau, but stakeholders as well.  Over the past 
year and a half, since the formal organizational meeting of the 
entire Board on 8 June 1998, the Congressional Members, in the face 
of resistance on the part of the Census Bureau to release 
operational details of Census 2000 planning, sought the testimony 
and perspective of census stakeholders.  These stakeholders, 
including state and local government officials and community 
residents from hard-to-count neighborhoods, are the partners on 
whom the Census Bureau will rely to count the nation's streets 
and houses. 

Their experiences working singularly and in cooperation with the 
Census Bureau are an integral part of the record for Census 2000. 
The Monitoring Board has created a series of opportunities-forums, 
``listening tours,'' and hearings-for this express purpose.  


Listening Tours

The nation's hard-to-count neighborhoods are the foundation of the 
differential undercount-hundreds of thousands of people living in low-
income, urban, rural and minority communities missed in the census.  
Their neighborhoods, approximately 2,700 tracts out of the 62,000 
tracts nationwide, should be the focus of the Census Bureau's 
efforts to reduce the differential undercount.  

The Congressional Members of the Board have made an effort to solicit 
the opinions, testimonies, and guidance of real persons living in 
hard-to-count neighborhoods.  These ``listening tours'' have taken 
place in Robert Taylor Homes, the nation's largest single housing 
project in Chicago; in the Delta and other rural areas of 
Mississippi; and in several Latino neighborhoods in Houston, 
including Magnolia Park.  In addition, we directed staff research 
in other areas, including colonias in South Texas and a native 
village in Alaska.

The guiding principle of our investigation in the hard-to-count 
neighborhoods is the belief that as the leaders and residents of 
these neighborhoods, they know more about their community and, as 
a result, know better how to ensure people are counted in Census 
2000.  Therefore, the purpose of these Listening Tours was to 
gain an ``on-the-ground'' perspective regarding the barriers that 
will hamper the Census Bureau in 2000 in these hard-to-count 
communities and neighborhoods. And, more importantly, to discover 
what specific strategies should be used and what the Census Bureau 
must do to confront these barriers and to reduce the differential 
undercount.

By improving the count at the neighborhood level where the undercount 
occurs, in every building and housing unit-at 4410 S. State Street in 
Chicago, at Baldwin Street and Edna Avenue in Isola, Mississippi, and 
at 3800 Lovejoy in Houston-the Census Bureau can reduce the 
differential undercount. However, in order to do so, the Census 
Bureau must amend current practices and allow for flexibility at 
the local level.  Only through innovation and flexibility at the 
local level will the Bureau be able to count, in these hard-to-
count neighborhoods, where real people are living and where the 
differential undercount occurs.  
 

The Undercount Summit

Based on the recommendations and the discussions the Board had 
throughout the country in hard-to-count neighborhoods, the 
Congressional Members of the Census Monitoring Board created a 
forum for real people, members of hard-to-count communities, to 
share their knowledge and their solutions for Census 2000.  
This forum was called the Undercount Summit, and was held in 
Washington, DC, on October 29th 1999.  The Summit brought 
people and voices, as yet unheard, together to share their 
expertise on ways to improve Census 2000.  

The participants represented a wide-range of hard-to-count 
communities-inner city neighborhoods, reservations and remote 
rural areas.  The representatives included residents, educators, 
labor unions, social service organizations, community activists, 
and government.  The Congressional Members believe that the 
participants' statements and their expertise represent the best 
hope for ensuring a more accurate count for Census 2000.

Throughout the Undercount Summit, participants identified barriers 
and concerns.  They also offered solutions for their communities 
that could be implemented right now to reduce the differential 
undercount of low-income, urban, rural and minority communities.  

The Undercount Summit was organized into three panels

   Isolated Communities: Language, Fear and Confidentiality 
in Hard-to-Count Neighborhoods
   How to Count in Hard-to-Count Neighborhoods
   Partnership: Expectations and Realities

The panelists of Isolated Communities discussed the elements of 
reluctance and the reasons why people are unwilling to respond to 
the census.  This panel brought together several residents of 
hard-to-count communities and several representatives of 
organizations with crucial roles in those communities, including 
a school principal.  More importantly, the panelists discussed 
linguistic isolation and apprehension in their own words.  
This panel created an inventory of barriers and concerns that 
the other panels discussed and then presented innovations and 
solutions to confront those barriers and concerns.  

The panelists of How to Count in Hard-to-Count Neighborhoods 
illustrated the ability of local communities, if involved in the 
census, to provide resources that would help ensure an accurate 
census.  The panelists represented a range of expertise-from a 
newspaper publisher to a Complete Count Committee chairperson, 
from a former director for the Salvation Army with expertise on 
the homeless in Cleveland, Ohio to the president of an organization 
that provides support to recent immigrants in the Washington, DC 
metropolitan area.  The resources, including volunteer positions 
known as facilitators, were "home-grown" to fit the needs of a 
particular city, neighborhood or street.

Finally, the Partnership panel illustrated the way in which the 
Census Bureau could use the concern and willingness of state and 
local governments to create solutions for their hard-to-count 
neighborhoods.  

Despite many of the panelists being unfamiliar with the other 
panelists and the other communities, one theme emerged: the Census 
Bureau must do more in hard-to-count neighborhoods, current 
strategies are not enough.


The Hispanic Federation Forum

In addition to the listening tours and to the Undercount Summit, 
the Congressional Members of the Board participated in a forum 
organized by the Presidential Members of the Census Monitoring 
Board and the Hispanic Federation on November 10th 1999 in New 
York City.  

The Hispanic Federation, an organization of Latino health and human 
services agencies serving the metropolitan New York City area, 
created this forum ``to discuss strategies to ensure that every New 
Yorker is counted in the 2000 census.''  According to the president, 
missed children in the 1990 census were the inspiration for the 
Federation: ``That is why the Hispanic Federation has taken a 
leadership role in promoting an accurate census.''

The participants of the Forum represented a wide range of services and 
agencies-including City Council members, the Catholic Charities of the 
Archdiocese of New York City, ALIANZA, and civil rights organizations.  
The comments and concerns of these participants, while focused on 
primarily Latino and Asian immigrant neighborhoods in the dense urban 
environment of New York City, were consistent with those presented at 
the Undercount Summit.  These concerns reflected the need for the 
Census Bureau to do more in hard-to-count neighborhoods. 




Summary

The Concerns of the Hard-to-Count Communities


This document, using the words of the participants of the Undercount 
Summit and the Hispanic Federation, briefly summarizes the barriers, 
concerns and solutions the participants have shared with the Census 
Monitoring Board.

This summary is organized into three discussions: Barriers, 
Concerns, and Solutions.  ``Barriers'' provides a sense of what 
keeps people from answering a census questionnaire and what 
those reasons may be.  ``Concerns'' illustrates the actual link 
between the barrier and the census forms that will not be completed 
in hard-to-count neighborhoods and ``Solutions'' presents some 
of the innovative and common sense methods states, cities and 
organizations will use to encourage participation in Census 2000.


Barriers

The first panel of the Undercount Summit, Isolated Communities: 
Language, Fear and Confidentiality, was a discussion of the basic 
elements of reluctance regarding the census: fear and isolation.  
People living in neighborhoods with little or no positive contact 
with government are highly suspicious of sharing ``private'' 
information with anyone from the government and actually fear 
what might become of their information and themselves if they 
answer the census questionnaire.   Participants at the Summit 
and the Hispanic Federation Forum indicated that people just do 
not trust that their information will not be shared with another 
government agency-such as Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 
the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and other 
agencies.  Isolation, including linguistic isolation, alienates 
residents from the message of the census' importance.

As the Summit and Forum participants consistently identified fear, 
mistrust and isolation as the leading barriers in hard-to-count 
neighborhoods, the lack of a strategy meeting these barriers was 
also pointed out.  These barriers will directly affect the success 
of the Census 2000 questionnaire response and non-response 
follow-up efforts.


Fear and Mistrust

Often in hard-to-count communities, any efforts by the government 
are viewed with suspicion and directly affect the level of 
cooperation the Census Bureau may receive in Census 2000.

Undercount Summit

   ``In Indian country there's a vast number of reasons, 
particularly the primary reason is that the government has made 
many promises to my people and broken every one of them.  That's 
reason enough for any human being to distrust any federal agent.''
Chairman Apesanahkwat, Tribal Leader, Menominee Reservation, WI

   ``Some of our basic fears are the unknowns of where the 
information is going to go.who all will receive various aspects 
of it.''
Shahshak Levi-Nawls, Resident and Community Activist, Robert 
Taylor Homes, Chicago, IL

   ``... if INS is walking behind, or in front of, any of 
your census takers, those immigrants who may be here legally or 
illegally are gone. . And I have had past experiences with INS 
walking in the door immediately after an enumerator and that's 
the end of counting anything.''
The Honorable Carol Roberts, Commissioner, Palm Beach County, FL


Hispanic Federation Forum

   ``I cannot stress enough to the Census Monitoring Board 
today how important it is to diffuse this fear by getting across a 
clear message of confidentiality.  This obviously won't solve all of 
our undercount problems in New York, but it will make a difference.''
Herbert Berman, Council Member, New York, NY

   ``There is a big distrust of big government, and that 
being rightly so with the immigrant community.''

``Again, just the fear is enormous when we talk about people 
knocking on doors or receiving forms which they have to submit.. I 
think the important message is, and what I would like to bring 
here, is that it is important to reach out to our organizations, 
who hold the trust in the community.''
Michael Amezquita, Executive Director, Northern Manhattan Coalition 
for Immigration Rights, New York, NY

   ``...all the outreach doesn't overcome those other 
barriers.  I think that this is particularly true for the immigrant 
population.  You can stand on your head and tell people that it is 
safe, and frankly, you [Census Bureau] can't tell people that it 
is safe, which is the whole reason for inaccurate counting, so 
that we can finally break away from a lot of the problems and 
counteract that particular issue.''
Margie McHugh, Executive Director, New York Immigrant Coalition



Isolation 

Isolation, whether geographic, cultural, or linguistic, reduces 
the ability and willingness of hard-to-count communities to 
participate in Census 2000.

Undercount Summit

   ``Colonias residents face geographic, social and 
economic isolation aggravated by illiteracy and a limited 
understanding of the workings of the larger community.''
Larry Rincones, Regional Director, Texas A & M Colonias Program

   ``Street and building lights are turned off sometimes by 
gang members.  When the elevators do not work, you could conceivably 
walk up 16 flights of dark dirty stairs. Given these conditions, 
who wouldn't experience fear, isolation and despair.  Given its 
reputation, census takers may even experience doubt about 
entering these building to count the number of family members.''
Gwendolyn Long, Principal, Farren Fine Arts Elementary School, Chicago, 
IL

Hispanic Federation Forum

   ``The largest influence and the biggest problem affecting this community happens to be limited English proficiency.''
The Honorable Roberto Ramirez, Assembly Member, New York, NY

Concerns
 
Most of the concerns expressed during the Undercount Summit and the 
Hispanic Federation Forum were directly related to the barriers of 
fear and isolation.  These concerns, as they were defined and 
discussed throughout all of the panels, illustrate the need for 
the Census Bureau to re-evaluate their current strategies and to 
acknowledge the barriers of hard-to-count communities.  

Many of these concerns took the form of recommendations that the 
Census Bureau should consider.


Enumerators

The enumerators are the Census Bureau's infantry units.  An 
enumerator is the individual responsible for knocking on the 
door of a house and completing the census questionnaire for 
a household that did not return the census questionnaire.   

Cultural sensitivity-an enumerator that looks and sounds like 
the people on the other side of the door-is one of the most basic 
requirements in hard-to-count communities.  Without cultural 
sensitivity, the enumerators are unlikely to be able to complete 
their task.

Undercount Summit

   ``No one is going to convince Indians that they should 
be counted except Indians.''

``I have an eighth grade education myself personally.  My people 
have, on average, less than the eighth grade.  But we have always 
known how many Indians were on that reservation.If you want to know 
how many Indians are there, we can tell you.  You don't need no 
degree to do that.''
Chairman Apesanahkwat 

   ``I believe that there is not enough emphasis being 
placed on are we matching up the right enumerator for the areas 
that we need to, especially focusing on the hard-to-count.. So 
you can't just overlook the fact that who you're going to have 
knock on the door has to be somebody that looks like the person 
that's living there.  And speak the language.  If you don't even 
have that as a capability, it's not going to work.''
Ana Sol Gutierrez, President, Casa de Maryland, Inc., Silver Spring, MD

   ``They may not be the people that you socialize with 
every day but those folks need to be the enumerators, the folks 
that know these people on the street by their first names and 
have already developed a sense of trust.''
Bill Bowen, former Director, Salvation Army, Cleveland, OH

   ``We are not going to entrust our private lives to 
strangers.  Therefore, strangers will not be allowed to come into 
Robert Taylor Homes.''
Tyrone Galtney, Resident and Community Activist, Robert Taylor Homes, 
Chicago, IL

   ``Just for a point of reference, the FBI has a two-year 
removal of their qualifications for those who are fluent in Spanish. 
If the FBI can do it, this panel can give some consideration.''
Bud McTaggart, Executive Assistant, AFL-CIO Cleveland, OH


Hispanic Federation Forum

   ``This leads to another major issue that we wanted to 
address, which is the issue of hiring bilingual personnel.  The 
Census Bureau has come out with a citizenship neutral policy.  
Guess what?  If you are not on the 51 Allied nation list, you 
are going to have a problem getting hired.. It excludes India, 
China, Taiwan and a lot of the bilingual personnel.  That is 
something that we really need to get the Census Bureau to really [be] 
aggressively hiring bilingual people in our community.''
Margaret Chin, Executive Director, Asian Americans for Equality, New York, 
NY

   ``My big worry is that we don't really have a plan..  
So, it seems to me now that we are still in the very broad brush 
strokes where we are talking about how diverse the population 
is, and about where the target neighborhoods are, but we are 
still not really talking about down at the deepest community levels 
about how we are actually going to get people in those areas.''
Margie McHugh

INS and Enforcement Actions

Certain enforcement actions, considered punitive, have a chilling 
effect on census cooperation because they disrupt and create a 
wave of fear throughout the community.

Undercount Summit

   ``Because of the negative impact that INS enforcement 
activities will have on the trust of immigrant communities during 
the Census 2000 and to ensure a fair and open participation in 
the census, we strongly urge you to recommend the suspension of 
INS enforcement activities for the year 2000 to ensure that 
immigrant communities feel safe talking to the government 
representative during the entire census process.''
Benito Juarez, Coordinator, Houston Immigration and Refugee Coalition, 
Houston, TX

   ``We have to remove all the ideas or concepts of punitive 
action being taken no matter whether it's the INS or a landlord or 
a housing authority or the police or anyone.''
Bill Bowen 


Hispanic Federation Forum

   ``Also the issue of addressing their concerns about the 
INS.  I was recently among the Regional Council for Immigrant Head 
Start.  That was a big concern of that population, that they do not 
trust the INS and what is going to happen with the information that 
they get from the parents.  They would be willing to be third 
parties if they knew we addressed those concerns, that they would 
not be in some way helping the INS.''
Elba Montalvo, Executive Director, Hispanic Committee on Children and 
Families


Adequate Materials for Hard-to-Count Areas,
Especially in Spanish

Inadequate or unavailable materials make cooperation and partnership 
with the Census Bureau difficult.  Specifically, for hard-to-count 
neighborhoods, materials for schools and language specific materials 
are important in Census 2000.

Undercount Summit

   ``Make sure the regional centers distribute the 
literature in a timely fashion to all schools including those of 
us who have known an undercount in previous years.''
Gwendolyn Long

   ``A lack of census fact sheets and promotional materials 
needed by partnership specialists for outreach education efforts.  
A lack of census fact sheets in other languages, especially Spanish, 
that are needed in the community.''
Anna Nï¿½ï¿½ez, Census 2000 Coordinator, City of Houston, TX


Hispanic Federation Forum

   ``In the 1990 census, over 64 percent of the Asian 
population stated that they do not speak English proficiently, 
so that is almost two thirds of the population.  The Asian 
population is growing, and as the new population is adding, for 
example in the different communities, they definitely need 
information in their language.''

``One of the things that we have also been pushing on is that the 
government is spending all this money on this national advertising 
campaign.  When we first saw the trailer, we questioned how come 
the language program was not even mentioned in this huge advertising 
campaign that is going to reach all the sectors.  The are going to 
do it in all languages, and I saw this piece in Chinese, but there 
was no mention about there is going to be Chinese assistance 
available by the questionnaires or in the information.''

``I mentioned before you should be getting bilingual information.  
Voter guides that will be coming to all the households and are 
in Spanish and in English.  There is a paragraph, if you want 
Chinese, you can call in for it.  Also like the information when 
you register to vote, the Board of Elections now sends out stuff 
in three languages.''
Margaret Chin

The Lack of Spanish Language Questionnaire

Not sending a Spanish-language questionnaire to the neighborhoods 
that are exclusively Spanish speaking was consistently cited as a 
major impediment for these communities.

Undercount Summit

   ``We believe that instead of sending this form in English 
to Spanish speakers, they should send a form in Spanish. So in that 
way people will be able to understand better what it is about and 
feel more confident in filling out and participating in the census''
Benito Juarez

   ``A lack of census forms in Spanish.  This is especially 
critical.  Many people are unaware of the fact that in order to 
receive a census questionnaire in Spanish, they must first respond 
to a letter [in English] that will be mailed to them, to their 
home in March.  If they do not respond to this form, they will 
not receive a census questionnaire in Spanish.''

``I would, again, respectfully request of whoever can affect change 
if the recognition was done in 1992 as to the specific challenge 
affecting the Latino community that, again, the inclusion of 
additional forms in Spanish is very critical for an accurate count.''
Anna Nï¿½ï¿½ez


Hispanic Federation Forum

   ``But the problem is how are you going to get a hold of 
that questionnaire?  When we first pushed for it with the advisory 
committee, we thought well technically, they took the form and 
mailed it to the Asians here in New York City.  We get the voter's 
guide in English and Spanish, and if you want a Chinese one, there 
is a phone number you can call?  Guess what?  Technically, it 
could be done.  After all the discussion and everything, it 
came down to the pre-Census letter.. Because in order to do 
it [obtain a Spanish questionnaire], they have got turn the 
English letter over to the back and find their languages and 
make a check mark and send it back.''

``The request form, it is sent out in English.  One of the things 
that we presented and that I suggested, minimally is to have 
something on the envelope that could alert people that there is 
something in there that is in their own language.''
Margaret Chin

   ''The fact is you can't get it right, because somebody 
is going to think it is wrong.  But the paralysis is not to do 
anything.  Give it a try and bear some of the heat for doing it.  
We deal with this all time when we send out things bilingually.  
Somebody gets offended, but you can't get it 100 percent right. 
You just have to do as much as you can.  Most people understand 
that we live in a multicultural town, a multicultural country, 
and they are not offended.  So just as much saturation as possible.  
More in this is better.  We come into this problem all the time, 
where we learn that one of our parishes now has added a service in 
another language, and we didn't send them that because on our 
previous list, it wasn't there.  Each weekend, mass is celebrated in 
50 different languages in our parishes.  It is never four or five.  
It is 50 different languages.  You can't get it 100 percent right, 
but more is better in this situation.''
Father Kevin Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer, The Catholic 
Charities of the Archdiocese of New York City



Remove Barriers to Hiring 

Hiring tests, application forms, and English proficiency exams may 
have the effect of screening out the very members of the American 
family who should be hired to count their communities in Census 2000.  

Undercount Summit

   ``If you have to take the enumerators test or application 
and throw it out the window, that's what you're going to have to do. 
And you're going to have to do that with a lot of these populations. 
Perhaps the enumerator that you need the most is the one who can't 
read the application for the enumerator test.''
Bill Bowen

   ``Not only do you have to pass that test in Spanish, you 
have to be able to pass an English proficiency test because the 
training is done in English, not in Spanish even though these 
persons would be required to work in Spanish dominant areas.''
Anna Nï¿½ï¿½ez

   ``So I believe that you need to alter the test not only 
for minorities, not only for perhaps those who have a problem with 
the reading and the writing, but I think you need to alter the test 
and not make it a barrier, but make it rather something that allows 
people to participate.''
The Honorable Carol Roberts


Welfare Waiver

Granting a ``waiver,'' an ``exclusion'' or an ``exemption'' for 
earnings derived from temporary census employment is important for 
hard-to-count neighborhoods.

Undercount Summit

   ``We need to say to the government to make sure that one 
of our enumerators are our welfare recipients from the housing 
project that there is a waiver that is given so that they are not 
penalized for this short-term job that they're doing for the 
benefit of the country.''
Gwendolyn Long

   ``It's paramount to getting facilitators and enumerators, 
and that is in order to facilitate neighborhood hiring, income 
derived from being census takers should not be counted towards 
the ceilings for Food Stamps, public housing, and other social 
services.  If it does, you eliminate a great source of 
accomplishing this.''
Bud McTaggart


Solutions

Opportunities to Reduce the Differential Undercount


Addressing the difficulties in hard-to-count neighborhoods 
includes both ``home-grown'' strategies and cooperation with 
the Bureau.  These strategies, discussed during the How to Count 
in Hard-to-Count Neighborhoods and Partnership panels at the 
Undercount Summit and throughout the Hispanic Federation Forum, 
focus on outreach and ensuring that enumerators have access to 
the help they need.  

These solutions reflect local challenges and, more importantly, 
the local resources that can be made available to the Census 
Bureau.  They range from using the standard Bureau partnership 
opportunities to really doing something unique such as creating 
census facilitators to help the enumerators.  Some of these 
solutions suggest that there are a lot of resources that are 
being neglected and some areas that could be used more.  For 
instance, schools can do more than just presenting ``Census in 
the Schools'' curriculum.  They are important members of the 
community that often have a daily relationship with parents in 
hard-to-count neighborhoods, not only the children.  Therefore, 
one solution is to expand the schools partnerships.  

There are a lot of solutions.  The participants in the Summit and 
the Forum only presented a few.  There are solutions in every state, 
city, neighborhood and community that will work. Moreover, these 
are solutions that can be implemented right now to reduce the 
differential undercount.


Undercount Summit

   ``We at the schools, both public and private, from 
kindergarten to graduate school can serve as a point to reach 
hard-to-reach areas and populations.  This is especially true 
serving, as we well know, in every community of Hispanic, 
immigrant and African American and other minority populations.  
Certainly we can all agree around this table that it serves the 
nation's best interest to recruit schools in this endeavor.  
I gather from my discussions around the table with many of 
you that has yet to take place.''
Jaime de la Isla, Assistant Superintendent, Houston Independent 
School District, Houston, TX

   ``What we need to do is partnership with the human 
service community action agencies where people are familiar with 
dealing with people. They have caseworkers there.  They have 
people that on a day-to-day basis they have contact with.''
The Honorable Jimmie Smith, Supervisor, Lauderdale County, MS

   ``The city will be using its libraries, multi-service 
centers and health clinics as questionnaire assistance centers.  We 
will be using our personnel in these facilities to help and assist 
people with the questionnaires.  The city will house the city census 
task force in a suite upstairs in City Hall.  We'll have our own 
office.  We'll have our own hotline.''
Johnny Soto, Chief of Staff for John Castillo (District I), Houston 
City Council, Houston, TX

   ``Special populations require special efforts by the 
Census Bureau and New York is assisting by identifying the location 
of all facilities licensed by state agencies as community-based 
facilities, group quarters, or other institutional facilities.''

``To improve communication, New York is developing partnerships with 
county, regional and local governments, businesses, the media and 
many not-for-profits.  Promotional materials, artwork and text is 
being made available electronically to spread the message to every 
part of the state by various methods.  We have our own Census 2000 
New York web site.''

``New York City Census 2000 is working with business improvement 
districts for the first time across the city publicize the census 
message.  In addition, the City's plan encourages residential 
buildings, both large and small, throughout the city to assign 
building captains.  The captains will evaluate census awareness 
by having volunteers knock on each door on April 1st, 2000 to 
stimulate the completion of questionnaires from all residents.''
Leslie Maeby, Director, New York State Complete Count Committee, 
Albany, NY

   ``Hold census forums at school sites which we are going 
to do at Farren.  Hold mock census enumerations.  Employ parents 
who work at the school who live in the housing development as the 
census takers.  Set up sites in the school where residents may 
give the census information versus having strangers come to the 
apartments.''
Gwendolyn Long

    ``Client databases.  Every social service agency has 
one.  Yes, there's confidentiality.  But they can take you to the 
house or they can take you to the client or they can encourage the 
client either by telephone or by mail to come in to a satellite 
location to fill out the form.''
Bill Bowen

   ``[This program] would also establish a volunteer 
position known as a facilitator and this person will be a 
trusted and respected individual of good moral character and 
will hold the ability to provide a comfort zone between the 
enumerator and the resident..He or she would understand that 
his time is voluntary and that he would be called on only 
when enumerators are lost or having difficulty penetrating a 
home.''
Lethreanna Gatewood, Chair, Little Rock Missionary Baptist Complete 
Count Committee, Gulfport, MS

   ``We think our existing promotoras program could encourage 
colonia residents to believe it is safe for them to participate in 
Census 2000.  Promotoras could encourage them to see that it is 
important for them to participate.  They could accompany enumerators 
on home visits where it appears there is a reluctance to talk with 
people unknown to the residents.  We can assist Census 2000 in 
identifying dependable colonia residents who could serve as 
enumerators in those communities.  We believe our existing staff 
could also help reduce the undercount by mobilizing other outreach 
programs who we know well to assist enumerators in isolated 
communities where we do not have a presence ourselves.''

``Finally we believe we could also hire colonia residents and create 
team to work with Census 2000 in colonias where no outreach 
programs now exist.''
Larry Rincones, Regional Director, Texas A&M Promotoras Program, 
Weslaco, TX


   ``Somehow I think there has to be a requirement, a 
minimum standard requirement of clear evidence of plans being 
in place that focuses on the hard-to-enumerate as a minimal focus 
and have the expectation of all local entities.''
Ana Sol Gutierrez


Hispanic Federation Forum

   ``Why not punctuate our `Constituent Cause' in our 
newsletters with a reminder of the importance of the census, and 
a promise of confidentiality is implicit.  As, needed, seniors 
with census questions could be referred to appropriate federal 
help lines or helped by our own constituent services.''

``We must also get the Census message into our classrooms.  I know 
that Census 2000 in partnership with Scholastic heads, has some 
wonderful free curriculum material available to kindergarten through 
twelfth grade teachers, tailored for specific grades.  I just want to 
remind everybody that 20 years ago, my children pestered me 
because of what they learned in school, and caused me to stop 
smoking.  It they could do that, they can get their parents to 
respond to the Census application.  We must tell teachers now that 
this wonderful resource is available to them and will be available.''
The Honorable Herbert Berman

   ``One of things we that we are trying to do in our 
organization is that we are committed to use our own office as a 
Census question assistance center so that our client, who knows 
us, will be able to come in and feel comfortable about filling 
out the form and getting help.''
Margaret Chin, Asian Americans for Equality

   ``One, one of the unique things that we bring as Catholic 
Charities of the Arch Diocese of New York and in general as the 
religious community is that we have what is referred to secularly 
as branch offices or as others call them, parishes located in every 
one of the communities of New York City.. You have a ready made 
network of what can would conceivably be community assistance 
centers..They are already staffed, for the most part.  Not perfect, 
by people who speak the languages of those communities because 
they have to do it on a day to day basis.''

``The other thing which I will stress over and over again is the 
question of confidentiality.  Hard to reach populations just don't 
believe you.  It is that simple.. That is why there is the need for 
those trusted third parties to become involved in that.''
Father Kevin Sullivan

   ``In using third parties like that, I think that is a 
very useful way of getting people to speak up.''
Elba Montalvo


Appendix

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