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Friday 13 december 2019

Detroit tops list of hard-to-count cities ahead of census

Continued from Front ics of the mass exodus that
began in the 1950s and
Nationwide, about a quar- sent Detroit’s population
ter of the population lives plummeting from about 1.8
in hard-to-count neighbor- million to 670,000.
hoods, including a major- About 86% of Detroit’s
ity of people in Atlanta, population lives in hard-to-
Cleveland, Dallas, Los An- count neighborhoods, by
geles, Milwaukee, Mem- far the largest proportion of
phis, Tennessee, and Fres- any major U.S. city, the AP
no, California. analysis found.
Obtaining an accurate Annette Brock, who lives
count is critical because northeast of downtown,
the census determines the said some residents see no
allocation of $1.5 trillion in connection between an-
federal spending and de- swering questions from the
cides which states gain or government and improv-
lose congressional seats. ing their lives.
“There is nothing more im- “Everybody else outside of
portant, no higher priority, us gets help before we do,”
than reaching the hard to Brock said. “I don’t blame
count,” Census Bureau Di- nobody if they don’t want
rector Steven Dillingham to participate, or if they
told lawmakers last sum- don’t want to help, or if they In this Nov. 22, 2019, photo, Detroit 2020 Census Campaign executive director Victoria Kovari looks
mer. don’t want to say nothing over a Detroit map showing city neighborhoods that were under-counted in the 2010 census.
Detroit’s recent resurgence no more. They’re tired of Associated Press
has led to refurbished speaking their mind.” dents were living in house- “That puts Detroit at great- encourage participation.
downtown buildings, new Nationwide, the Census holds that did not fill out er risk just because of the California census officials
boutique hotels and an in- Bureau predicts a 60.5% re- questionnaires, costing the demographics,” Elliott said. have hired liaisons whose
vigorated arts community. sponse rate. city $2,000 to $5,000 annu- Researchers have learned sole focus is 15 specific
But the renaissance has About 70% of Detroit resi- ally for every uncounted that Latinos, African Ameri- hard-to-count groups, in-
done little for some resi- dents turned in their 2000 person, said Victoria Kovari, cans, non-English-speaking cluding farm workers, the
dents who live in persistent Census forms. That figure executive director of De- immigrants and children homeless and people with-
poverty and harbor linger- fell to 64% a decade later, troit’s 2020 Census Cam- under 5 are the hardest out broadband subscrip-
ing mistrust after decades when the national rate was paign. to count, along with tribal tions.
of racial upheaval. The 74 percent. To get those numbers back members, nontraditional “You really have to un-
many empty homes are rel- In 2010, 220,000 Detroit resi- up, city census teams have families and people with in- derstand the structural
knocked on nearly 130,000 formal living arrangements. barriers that exist,” said Di-
doors in neighborhoods Experts say the Trump ad- tas Katague, director of
that were under-counted in ministration’s effort to put a the California Complete
the last census and spoken citizenship question on the Count-Census 2020 Office.
with more than 26,000 peo- questionnaire may scare Gathering accurate popu-
ple. But Kovari is still con- off immigrants who live lation data in Detroit can
cerned. For the first time, here illegally and others. be daunting because of its
the Census Bureau would Although the effort failed, size and the emptiness of
like respondents to answer opponents of the question some neighborhoods. The
questions online, but the say damage has already city was almost bursting
agency estimates that 30% been done. its limits through the 1950s,
of Detroit households lack California and New Mexico until good-paying auto
regular connection to the have some of the nation’s and other manufacturing
internet, roughly double largest concentrations of jobs allowed a burgeon-
the national percentage. Latinos. In those states, over ing white middle class to
The Census Bureau sends 40 percent of the popula- find bigger homes and bet-
workers to homes that tion lives in hard-to-count ter schools in the suburbs.
don’t respond. In Detroit, neighborhoods. Years of housing discrimi-
that means knocking on By contrast, Vermont, nation made it harder for
the doors of vacant houses Maine and West Virginia the city’s black residents to
and others where residents have some of the highest leave.
may not answer. concentrations of white Tensions between Detroit’s
Almost 80 percent of De- residents and older peo- black residents and its
troit is African American, ple, who are more likely to mostly white police depart-
and observers “know we fill out census forms. There, ment exploded in a riot in
are going to have an un- less than 5% of the popula- 1967, scarring the land-
dercount among the black tion lives in hard-to-count scape and driving more
population,” said Diana neighborhoods. white flight.
Elliott, an Urban Institute To tout the importance of The 1973 election of Cole-
researcher who co-wrote the 2020 census, California man A. Young as the city’s
a report last summer that is spending an estimated first black mayor was a
estimated anywhere from $187 million on advertising milestone in Detroit’s rise as
900,000 to 4 million people and events and recruiting a city dominated by Afri-
could be missed. neighborhood leaders to can Americans.q