The deadlines for the census have been pushed back because of the coronavirus, affecting millions, including the population of San Jose.
After putting data collection efforts on hold in March, the U.S. Census Bureau announced changes to its operations in order to protect the public and bureau employees in an April 13 statement.
Jeffrey Enos, the U.S. Census Bureau’s deputy regional director of the Los Angeles region, said the bureau has extended the self-response phase deadline until Oct. 31 to account for the pandemic. The initial self-response phase includes online, phone and mailed responses. The next phase, the counting of group quarters, which includes e-responses and paper counts, have an extended deadline of Sept. 3, giving the bureau almost an extra three months to fulfill this phase.
Enos said everyone should fill out their census forms soon so they don’t forget.
The state uses data from the census to decide how to allocate funding to programs such as Medi-Cal, MediCare and the food stamps program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as well as provides infrastructure funds for things like roads
and highways.
Nicholas Kuwada, Santa Clara County census project manager, said the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench in operations because the group relies on door-to-door enumerators to ensure that everyone is counted – a practice which has become tricky because of the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
“It’s like rain on your birthday, except this is a torrential downpour and it doesn’t seem like there’s an end in sight,” Kuwada said.
However, the U.S. Census Bureau is still responsible for carrying out the count because the Constitution mandates that the government count every person living in the U. S. every 10 years.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced census workers to adapt.
Despite large numbers of San Jose State students moving back home as the school transitioned to online classes, the university sends the number of students who live in university-owned housing, whether in dormitories, sororities or fraternities, to the U.S. Census Bureau.
This also applies to other group housing such as orphanages, homeless shelters, hospitals and prisons, where the respective organizations have to count their own occupants.
As of April 1, Enos said, any students who live off-campus are counted where they live.
Anyone in the country, regardless of their legal status or whether they’re on a visa or just visiting, should be counted for the census, according to Kuwada.
He also said that the public is often confused about who should be counted in a household. The answer is everyone living in it, he said, including roommates, children and tenants.
Census data also determines the amount of federal relief aid given to regions, which is vital in times of crisis like during natural disasters or pandemics.
“If you ever wanted to see the census in action, now is that time,” said Kuwada, referring to how census data is used to determine allocation of funds during disasters.
