Officials stress importance of participating in census effort

by CYRYL JAKUBOWSKI
      The U.S. Census Bureau has opened an office on the Northwest Side and is urging residents to participate in the effort to count the country’s population.
      Alderman Ray Suarez (31st) joined community groups to discuss the importance of responding to the census at the new office, 4230 W. Belmont Ave. “The census is a very important task,” Suarez said. “It will be our responsibility to get the word out to different ethnicities who are afraid of big government.”
      Suarez said that community outreach efforts are important because they raise awareness about how the federal government will distribute more than $400 billion to states and communities based on census data.
      According to the bureau, the government uses the population data to allocate funds for educational agencies, Head Start programs, food grants, public transportation, infrastructure, senior programs, emergency food and shelter programs and other services. The data also is used to determine the locations of schools, retail stores, hospitals, new housing developments and other facilities and to determine how many seats each state will have in the U.S. House of Representatives.
      “If everyone keeps talking, we will get the word out,” Suarez said. “A lot of people who are here illegally are  afraid to give out the information, but believe me, the government already knows you are out there.”
      Local census office manager Miguel Mora said that he wants to make sure than enough people are recruited as temporary workers before the count begins on April 1. Mora said the census questionnaires will be mailed in March and that the bureau must submit state population totals by Dec. 31.
      Mora said workers will go door to door from late April through July and that the number of jobs that will be available through the new office will be released in late March or April.
“In 2000, when we did the census, a lot of people were unaccounted for,” he said. “This year we
want to make sure we count everyone.“
      5th U.S. House District office representative James Yoo said that the forms are confidential and that it is against the law for the government to share the information it gathers.
Under the law, it is illegal for the bureau or its employees to share the information with any other agency, including law enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security or federal immigration agencies. Bureau employees are subject to a $250,000 fine or a 5-year prison term for  disclosing information that could identify a respondent or a household.
      Households are asked to provide demographic information including whether the house is rented or owned, the address of the residence and the name, gender, age and race of everyone who lives in the home. The bureau will not ask about social security numbers or legality status.
“It’s 10 questions, it takes 10 minutes and it’s every 10 years,” Yoo said.
      1st Ward chief of staff Raymond Valadez said that he was a census taker in 2000 and that he knows the importance of community response. “That $400 billion is distributed based on the census,” Valadez said. “It is crucial for our communities to get the services that they deserve so that there can be more job creation, more schools and more infrastructure programs.”
      Representatives of groups that are involved in creating and running various “complete count” committees discussed the challenges that some ethnicities and communities are facing. The volunteer committees are established by local governments or community leaders in an effort to increase awareness about the census and to motivate residents to respond to it. The committees also aim to provide services such as overcoming language barriers.
      Community partnership specialist Kasia Rivera said that the Albany Park neighborhood is one of the most diverse in the nation and that more than 100 languages are spoken there. Rivera said that in 2000 about 30,110 foreign-born residents were counted in the neighborhood, making it the neighborhood with the highest percentage of immigrants in the nation — 52 percent. However, she said that many immigrant groups were undercounted, with some response rates in areas of Albany Park being as low as 42 percent.
      “I have this local office, but we have 18 committees set up at this point,” Rivera said. “My job is to educate the people in order to make sure that the surveys get returned. Whether it’s an issue of confidentiality or a language barrier, we are here to try to raise our response rate by 10 percent (in Albany Park).”
      George Borovik of the Northwest Business Collaborative Complete Count Committee said that the group has been targeting ethnic businesses in order to raise awareness about the importance of the census. “If you live at Belmont and Central, you can live there all your life without ever knowing English because there are so many Polish businesses there,” Borovik said.“We’re trying to dispel the rumors. The rumors are that if you fill out the forms, then INS or the police will come and get you, and that’s complete nonsense.”
      The bureau plans to hire more than 60,000 people in the state and about 20,000 people in Chicago. To qualify for a job with the bureau, applicants must speak English, but bilingual skills are preferred in certain areas, according to census officials.
      Job salary ranges from $14.25 to $18.25 an hour and are mainly to help collect questionnaires that have not been filled out after April 1. Workers are usually sent into neighborhoods to help people complete the census form, answer questions and conduct interviews.
For information on testing dates, call the local census office at 773-355-5790.