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CENSUS 2010: HARD-TO-COUNT POPULATIONS

WITH SPECIAL LIVING CONDITIONS

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INFORMATION POLICY,

CENSUS, AND NATIONAL ARCHIVES

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT

AND GOVERNMENT REFORM

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

MARCH 8, 2010

Serial No. 111–85

Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

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Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html

http://www.oversight.house.gov

(II)

COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM

EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York, Chairman

PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland

DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio

JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts

WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri

DIANE E. WATSON, California

STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts

JIM COOPER, Tennessee

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia

MIKE QUIGLEY, Illinois

MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of

Columbia

PATRICK J. KENNEDY, Rhode Island

DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois

CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland

HENRY CUELLAR, Texas

PAUL W. HODES, New Hampshire

CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut

PETER WELCH, Vermont

BILL FOSTER, Illinois

JACKIE SPEIER, California

STEVE DRIEHAUS, Ohio

JUDY CHU, California

DARRELL E. ISSA, California

DAN BURTON, Indiana

JOHN L. MICA, Florida

MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana

JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., Tennessee

MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio

LYNN A. WESTMORELAND, Georgia

PATRICK T. MCHENRY, North Carolina

BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California

JIM JORDAN, Ohio

JEFF FLAKE, Arizona

JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska

JASON CHAFFETZ, Utah

AARON SCHOCK, Illinois

BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri

ANH ‘‘JOSPEH’’ CAO, Louisiana

RON STROMAN, Staff Director

MICHAEL MCCARTHY, Deputy Staff Director

CARLA HULTBERG, Chief Clerk

LARRY BRADY, Minority Staff Director

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INFORMATION POLICY, CENSUS, AND NATIONAL ARCHIVES

WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri, Chairman

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of

Columbia

DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois

STEVE DRIEHAUS, Ohio

DIANE E. WATSON, California

HENRY CUELLAR, Texas

JUDY CHU, California

PATRICK T. MCHENRY, North Carolina

LYNN A. WESTMORELAND, Georgia

JOHN L. MICA, Florida

JASON CHAFFETZ, Utah

DARRYL PIGGEE, Staff Director

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C O N T E N T S

Page

Hearing held on March 8, 2010 .............................................................................. 1

Statement of:

Driehaus, Hon. Steve, a Representative in Congress for the State of

Ohio ................................................................................................................ 5

Duncan, Todd, director of housing and food services at the University

of Cincinnati .................................................................................................. 61

Hopkins, Suzanne, director of programs, the Center for Independent Living Options, Inc. ............................................................................................ 50

Mallory, Mark, mayor of Cincinnati, OH ....................................................... 6

Mesenbourg, Thomas L., Deputy Director, U.S. Census Bureau ................. 17

Riviero, Jason, Ohio State Director, League of United Latin American

Citizens .......................................................................................................... 43

Scharfenberger, David, lead organizer, Training & Outreach Programs,

Working in Neighborhoods [WIN] ............................................................... 35

Spring, Josh, Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless ...................... 55

Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:

Clay, Hon. Wm. Lacy, a Representative in Congress from the State of

Missouri, prepared statement of .................................................................. 3

Duncan, Todd, director of housing and food services at the University

of Cincinnati, prepared statement of ........................................................... 63

Hopkins, Suzanne, director of programs, the Center for Independent Living Options, Inc., prepared statement of .................................................... 52

Mallory, Mark, mayor of Cincinnati, OH, prepared statement of ................ 10

Mesenbourg, Thomas L., Deputy Director, U.S. Census Bureau, prepared

statement of ................................................................................................... 19

Riviero, Jason, Ohio State Director, League of United Latin American

Citizens, prepared statement of ................................................................... 46

Scharfenberger, David, lead organizer, Training & Outreach Programs,

Working in Neighborhoods [WIN], prepared statement of ........................ 38

Spring, Josh, Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, prepared

statement of ................................................................................................... 58

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CENSUS 2010: HARD-TO-COUNT POPULATIONS

WITH SPECIAL LIVING CONDITIONS

MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2010

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INFORMATION POLICY, CENSUS, AND

NATIONAL ARCHIVES,

COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM,

Cincinnati, OH.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2 p.m., at the Main

Street Cinema, 256 Tangeman University Center, University of

Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, Hon. Wm. Lacy Clay (chairman of the

subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Representatives Clay and Driehaus.

Staff present: Darryl Piggee, staff director/counsel.

Mr. CLAY. Good afternoon and welcome to today’s hearing entitled, ‘‘Census 2010: Hard-To-Count Populations With Special Living Conditions.’’

Today’s hearing, as the title indicates will examine the 2010 census efforts to enumerate those hard-to-count populations with special living conditions.

The hearing will examine the Census Bureau’s activities in preventing an under-count of these populations. We will further examine avenues to aid the Census Bureau in its efforts to reach those

who are most likely to be under-counted and minorities. Today’s dialog will ultimately lead to a better understanding as to what can

be done to ensure the success of the 2010 census.

We have with us today, my distinguished colleague in this hearing, Mr. Steve Driehaus, and I want to thank you for this invitation to Cincinnati. We could not have picked a better city or a better time to conduct this hearing seeing as census forms will be

going out as of next Monday. We would urge all Americans to

mail—to fill out the questionnaires, 10 questions, and send them

back in the mail.

And without—and so thank you, again, Representative Driehaus

for the invitation. Without objection, the chair and ranking member

will have 5 minutes to make an opening statement, followed by an

opening statement from Representative Driehaus. I will begin with

the opening statement. The purpose, again, of today’s hearing is to

examine and discuss efforts to enumerate hard-to-count populations with special living conditions. And I also want to thank you,

Representative Driehaus and his staff for hosting today’s hearing,

and for the courtesies afforded to this subcommittee. As Congressman Driehaus knows and many of you know as well, Cincinnati

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has a particularly important history with the census. And much

can be gained from the testimony we will hear today.

The city of Cincinnati contains a perfect microcosm of these

hard-to-count groups. We hope to learn by Cincinnati’s example as

the local communities are key to the count. Further, I solute Dr.

Groves and the Census Bureau for their efforts. Census day is less

than 4 weeks away, so let’s work together and exchange ideas to

ensure an accurate count.

On our first panel, we will hear from the Honorable mayor of

Cincinnati, Mark Mallory. And Mayor Mallory will enlighten us on

Cincinnati’s plan to achieve full participation, and share with us

the recommendations of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Taskforce

on the Census.

We will hear from Dr. Thomas Mesenbourg. Mr. Mesenbourg will

testify about the Bureau’s strategy and ability to count those in

special living conditions.

Our second panel includes civic leaders dedicated to community

participation, education, and quality. This panel is acutely aware

of the challenges of enumerating the hard-to-count population. We

look forward to their insight into these efforts. I thank all of the

witnesses for appearing today, and look forward to their testimony,

and now I recognize Representative Driehaus for 5 minutes.

[The prepared statement of Hon. Wm. Lacy Clay follows:]

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STATEMENT OF HON. STEVE DRIEHAUS, A REPRESENTATIVE

IN CONGRESS FOR THE STATE OF OHIO

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank

you for holding this hearing in Cincinnati. As you know, as soon

as we began the process of talking about the census, I approached

you and asked officially—it was over a year ago—to hold a hearing

in Cincinnati, knowing the efforts of the mayor and knowing the

efforts of other individuals here in Cincinnati, to make sure that

we do have an accurate count. And my experience in the foreclosure taskforce in the State of Ohio helped me better understand

how challenging this is going to be this time when it comes to identifying, especially those households that are in transition due to

foreclosures.

As you know, the Constitution mandates that we hold the Census every 10 years. It helps determine the distribution of more

than $400 billion of financial aid to citizens, to States, and to municipalities. And it’s used to support education, health care, and

transportation initiatives and impacts us in our day-to-day lives.

States also use the information from the Census to provide funding

to municipalities, which is a very significant issue here in the

Greater Cincinnati area because we have several very small municipalities and that threshold at 5,000 is important. So this count

is specifically very important to cities like St. Bernard and other

small cities in addition to the importance it has to the city of Cincinnati.

As was mentioned in 2005, the city of Cincinnati challenged the

population estimate of the 2005 American Community Survey. And

while the American Community Survey isn’t the Census, that snapshot of the population was critically important to determine some

of the funding levels coming from the Federal Government. We do

have with us today the distinguished mayor of Cincinnati, Mark

Mallory, and the mayor has been leading the charge to challenge

those numbers on behalf of the residents of the city of Cincinnati,

and has helped other mayors throughout the country learn how

they might better reach out to hard to reach populations to help

the Census and the community survey better understand how to

count those populations. We have several hard-to-count populations

here in Cincinnati. And as you mentioned, we are a microcosm because when you talk about the dislocation that has occurred because of—because of homelessness, because of the foreclosure crisis

or in terms of reaching out to low and minority communities, low

income and minority communities that we have here in Cincinnati.

We also have a growing Hispanic community, who we will hear

from today. We also have people with disabilities, who are traditionally more difficult to count as we move forward with the Census. So I look forward to this hearing to help really draw attention

to the importance of the Census, and helping the residents of

Greater Cincinnati understand the importance of participating. But

also to have a dialog between the representatives of the hard-tocount populations and the Census Bureau to talk about what methodology we are using to specifically reach out to those hard-to-count

populations. And what avenues we are exploring, especially given

the technology we now have before us, to reach out to those populations and get as accurate a count as possible.

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So, I want to again thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for you

agreeing to come here to Cincinnati and hold this hearing on this

critically important issue especially as we approach census day on

April 1st. And so with that, I’ll turn it back over to you.

Mr. CLAY. You’re very welcome, Representative, and you may

have the pleasure of introducing our first panel. This is your hometown, and I’ll allow you to do that.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Do you want me to read what you’ve written here

or do you want me to——

Mr. CLAY. You may as well.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. OK. I won’t tell you the background between the

mayor and myself. I want to start by introducing first our mayor,

the Honorable Mark Mallory. Mayor Mallory is a national leader

on Census counts in urban areas. As mayor, he successfully challenged the 2005 census estimate for Cincinnati adding 22,000 people to the population. Since then he has made numerous presentations on the subject and was honored in 2008 with an appointment as chair of the newly formed 2010 Census Taskforce for the

U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Mayor Mallory is a life-long Cincinnatian; born and raised in the

West End. He is a graduate of the Cincinnati Academy of Math

and Science and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in administrative management from the University of Cincinnati, our host. And

let me, again, thank the University of Cincinnati for their hospitality and their willingness to host this hearing here on campus.

Next, we have Mr. Thomas L. Mesenbourg, Acting Deputy Director of the U.S. Census Bureau. Mr. Mesenbourg has worked at the

Census Bureau since 1972. In 2004 he was the recipient of a Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Senior Executives, the Government’s highest award for career executives.

Mr. Mesenbourg earned his Bachelors degree in economics from

Boston University in 1968 and his Master’s from Penn State in

1971. So with that, I would like to open it up, and I know you want

to swear in our——

Mr. CLAY. Thank you so much, Representative. If I could ask

both witnesses to stand, please. It’s the policy of the committee to

swear in all our witnesses testifying. So, raise your right hands

and repeat after me.

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. CLAY. Thank you. You may be seated. Let the record reflect

that both witnesses answered in the affirmative. Each of you will

have 5 minutes in which to make opening statements and your

complete written testimony will be included in the hearing record.

And Mr. Mayor, we will proceed with you.

STATEMENT OF MARK MALLORY, MAYOR OF CINCINNATI, OH

Mr. MALLORY. Thank you very much, Congressman Clay. Members of the distinguished Information Policy, Census, and National

Archives Subcommittee, thank you very much for affording me the

opportunity to offer testimony today. Congressman Clay, this is the

second time I’ve had the distinguished opportunity of presenting to

your subcommittee. The first was in St. Louis; you were very gracious and a wonderful host and I thank you for that.

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Congressman Driehaus, thank you very much for not only being

the host for today’s subcommittee meeting, but for having the full

understanding of the importance of this issue as it relates not just

to the city of Cincinnati but to the Nation itself.

The focus of this hearing is on hard-to-count populations. Approximately 95 percent of the Census tracts in Cincinnati are designated as hard-to-counts by the U.S. Census Bureau. Therefore,

all of our Census activities—are on hard-to-count—activities are

really focused in this area, and I can think of no better city to hold

this hearing than the city of Cincinnati based on the history that

we have had with the Census.

So in my testimony today, I’m going to share with you the challenges that Cincinnati faces; in particular in counting our hard-tocount population. For the purposes of background, I’m going to give

you an overview of the Census activities under my administration,

and I’ll include an update on the efforts by the U.S. Conference of

Mayors’ Census Taskforce.

To take you back, in 2006 the Census Bureau estimated Cincinnati’s population at 308,728 people, a decrease of 6.8 percent

since the 2000 census. Now, the estimate became the source of

headlines for many articles stating that Cincinnati was dying and

that people no longer wanted to live or invest in our city. I knew

those numbers could not be correct. They do not reconcile with the

new development that was taking place in the city of Cincinnati.

Since the year 2000 there have been numerous housing and other

development projects that did not seem to be accounted for in the

new estimates.

When I learned that cities could indeed challenge their estimate,

I directed our Planning Department to conduct an analysis of Cincinnati records including building permits, demolition permits, and

conversions of buildings into apartments and condominiums. The

analysis was submitted to the Census Bureau as a challenge to the

estimate and in a few short months we were notified by the Census

Bureau that our data was indeed accepted. Our population estimate as a result of that challenge was increased to 331,310 people,

and that recognized an additional 22,000 residents from the initial

estimate.

Now, that number helped disprove the reports that our city was

in a state of decline, and it was the beginning of the turnaround

for the image of our city; not only for residents, but for investors

as well. Subsequent to that, in 2007, we commissioned Social Compact to conduct a comprehensive analysis of Cincinnati’s population. Using their analysis, we now know that the city of Cincinnati’s true population is 378,259 people. That’s a 13 percent increase over the 2000 census, and that number helped us refocus

our approach for the 2010 census. And what I mean by that is, our

approach in Cincinnati is that we are not going to count the population this year, we are going to account for at least 378,259 people.

That’s is a major shift, I think, in the way cities approach the Census.

If, for example, a neighborhood is counted and we find fewer people than we expected to find in that particular neighborhood, we

are going to invest more time and more resources going back into

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that neighborhood until we are satisfied that we have accounted for

everybody there.

One challenge that we recognized early on was that City Government can’t do this alone. We established our Complete Count Committee nearly 2 years ago, and I appointed the president of the

Greater Cincinnati Urban League and the director of our planning

department at the city of Cincinnati as co-chairs of the effort to ensure that we have an accurate count.

That committee was charged with developing a comprehensive

plan to build awareness for the Census and to ensure that all of

our citizens were accounted for. And one of the things that I have

stressed locally and nationally is that we have to partner with the

U.S. Census. We can’t expect the Census to come in town and conduct a count that is expected to be accurate if we are not active

and involved with the U.S. Census.

Another challenge that we face, of course, is getting people to understand the importance of the Census, getting them to understand

what it is that we are trying to achieve beyond the Federal dollars

that come to a city. This really has effects on the perception of the

city itself. So in Cincinnati, once we created our Complete Count

Committee we did a branding, and we called our efforts in Cincinnati ‘‘Cincinnati Counts,’’ which is the basis for our educational

and awareness campaign. And we launched ‘‘Cincinnati Counts’’ on

April 1, 2009, and I declared this entire year from April 1, 2009

to April 1, 2010 as census year in Cincinnati.

So to build awareness, ‘‘Cincinnati Counts’’ has distributed Tshirts, bumper stickers, flyers and buttons to the Complete Count

Committee members, who have in turn distributed those materials

to their clientele and to their targeted communities.

One of our strategies was to make sure that we had representation on the Complete Count Committee from every targeted community we could identify. We have provided street banners and

posters for windows of businesses in business districts and we have

participated in more than 150 community events, and we have

made presentations to countless community groups.

We have engaged our partners to assist us in this effort. Here’s

an example, the Avondale Youth Council knocked on more than

1,000 doors recently to build awareness around the Census. We

have provided materials to the Greater Cincinnati United Way to

distribute though their member organizations and recently the Cincinnati Enquirer highlighted the difficulty of getting an accurate

count in the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood. And one of our partners in that area, Emmanuel Community Center, has been helping

to build awareness with regular events and the distribution of materials. Again, our strategy has been to engage those agencies and

individuals that represent the hard-to-count populations.

Cincinnati has partnered with the Census Bureau to talk about

the Census in houses of faith. And last October and again this

month, nearly 100 different faith organizations across our city participated in including Census information in their bulletins. They

posted a copy of the Census questionnaire. They included Census

facts in an email blast to their congregations. Again, these are all

strategies aimed at getting to as many people as we can.

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We have sent emails to the presidents of the 52 community councils. We have sent out additional targeted emails to those communities that we know are targeted and difficult to count, and we continue to not only inform people about the importance on the Census

itself but we are talking to them about the fact that there are jobs

available. Particularly in this job market, it is a great thing to

know that someone is hiring. And we, of course, are hoping to utilize as many local people in the very communities that we are

counting. The count in those communities—we figure that familiarity will help us get a more accurate count.

Now, as mayor, I understand how critical an accurate count can

be to the city. It impacts the Federal dollars that we receive. It also

impacts the image of our city. If a population is declining it is a

signal to investors, to businesses, and to residents that there’s no

future in their city.

Now, I’ve discussed the importance of an accurate count with

mayors across the country through the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

It was in 2008 that I was appointed as the Chair of the 2010

Taskforce, which was formed to focus on fostering partnerships between the cities and the Census Bureau. In that role I convened

a series of taskforce meetings on a number of topics and we have

been able to get information out to more than 1,000 mayors across

though country. Over the last 2 years, we have been able to share

best practices, offer presentations from Census Bureau representatives, and hear from experts on Census issues. In 2008—excuse

me—our workshop focused on how to challenge Census estimates;

and in 2009 we reviewed actions, steps, and strategies for creating

Completing Count Committees.

So, now, we are at the final push as we look toward the next 23

days leading up to census day 2010. The city of Cincinnati, ‘‘Cincinnati Counts’’ campaign is working to turn awareness into action.

Our focus at this point is to motivate residents to complete the

form and mail it back: ‘‘Ten questions. Ten minutes.’’ We want everyone to hear that message and to take that action.

We want to make sure there’s a deeper connection that people

have knowing about the Census, and knowing how an accurate

Census impacts their lives. So, we are now working with the Census on specific fact sheets, partnering with media outlets for promotion of census day activities and creating other activities with

our partner organizations that are tailored to their memberships.

Again, all to get them to understand why this is so important.

We understand that the work does not end on April 1st. We are

committed to working with the U.S. Census as long as it takes in

order for this count to be complete. Again, we want to ensure that

in the city of Cincinnati we have a Census count that indicates our

population is at least 378,259 residents. I thank you for your time,

and I would be happy to answer any questions.

Mr. CLAY. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor, for that testimony.

Now, we will turn to Mr. Mesenbourg. You have 5 minutes.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Mallory follows:]

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STATEMENT OF THOMAS L. MESENBOURG, DEPUTY

DIRECTOR, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

Mr. MESENBOURG. Chairman Clay, Congressman Driehaus, I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you about the 2010 census. The Census Bureau’s primary goal is to count everyone, count

them once, and count them in the right place. This is a daunting

task, and current economic conditions make it even more difficult

this decade. Foreclosures, displaced households and individuals,

homelessness, natural disasters, and unusual living arrangements

do pose challenges to the count, but we believe we have procedures

in place to ensure that we count everyone.

Let me start with a brief discussion of one of the fundamental

principals we use in conducting the count, that is of ‘‘Usual Residence.’’ The Census Bureau’s Usual Residence Rule is grounded in

the Census Act of 1790, which governed the very first census. The

concept of Usual Residence remains intact today. The Usual Residence Rules intended to count people in the place where they eat

and sleep most of the time.

I’d like to start by describing some of the challenges we face because of economic dislocation and unusual or nontraditional living

arrangements, and what we are doing to address these challenges.

Most residents live in traditional living arrangements, i.e. singlefamily homes, townhouses or apartments. But there is a segment

of the population that reside in what we would call group-quarters

facilities, such as college dormitories like the ones at the University

of Cincinnati. We have tried and tested procedures and processes

in place to count college students, and other individuals living in

group quarters facilities.

Now, because of economic conditions many families and individuals have been forced to relocate. Some may have been forced to

abandon their foreclosed homes and move into apartments, others

may have moved in with family or friends and others may be experiencing homelessness or living in campgrounds or other transitory

locations.

While economic conditions pose new challenges, we believe we

have procedures in place to count households or individuals that

have been dislocated. Foreclosure is at a record level, but every

foreclosed property, if still standing, is included on our Master Address File whether or not the unit is occupied. Now, Census forms

will show up in 121 million mailboxes next week between March

15th and March 17, 2010. Now, if the property is unoccupied the

form may be returned to us by the Postal Service as being undeliverable, but beginning May 1st all addresses from which we have

not received a report form will be contacted by an enumerator and

will be contacted up to six times until we actually get information

on that housing unit and the individuals that live in it. Addresses

that are designated at the end of this process as being vacant and

unoccupied will be included in the housing count. But, of course,

they will have no population counted in the 2010 census.

Now, individuals and families that have moved will be sent a

2010 census Form at their new address. If people have moved in

with their relatives or friends they should be counted as part of

that household. And we have added a new question to the 2010

Census Short Form to get at this issue of dislocation. We have also

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developed advertising directed at those segments of the population

that may have been impacted by the economic conditions. Those

ads will be running on radio and in print media. Our vast network

of partner organizations, which include the Complete Count Committee in Cincinnati, which Mayor Mallory has done such a fine job

with, now number over 210,000 organizations across the country.

And they play a key role in getting the message out about how important the Census is.

Procedures are in place to count college students that live in

dorms or other college facilities. These students will be counted at

the university or college dorm or the fraternity or sorority house

where they live. We have just completed the advanced visit to all

group-quarters facilities and will begin data collection on April 1,

2010. Students living in off-campus housing will receive a 2010

Census Form at their address on campus and we would ask them

to fill it out and mail it back. Parents whose child or children who

do not live at home but live in a dormitory away from home will

be instructed not to include them on their Census forms. That’s another addition to the short form. Respondents displaced by natural

disasters for an extended period of time will generally be counted

where they reside on or about April 1, 2010. Populations affected

by Hurricanes Ike, Katrina and Rita will be counted where they

currently live and sleep most of the time as of April 1, 2010. For

areas that were specifically affected by these hurricanes, we have

taken special measures to ensure that we have an accurate count.

We have hired additional staff and hired them early, provided

extra training and added additional local Census offices in the affected areas, and we have also launched an aggressive outreach

and partnership effort in these areas. The workers that we have

hired in these hurricane-impacted areas will also be used to update

our address list in these areas and we’ll actually deliver a form to

the housing units.

In addition to the traditional enumeration of housing units and

group quarters, the Census Bureau has developed a Service-Based

Enumeration operation to reach people experiencing homelessness.

These people will be enumerated at the locations where they receive services. This operation was specifically designed to enumerate people who use service facilities because they may be missed

during the traditional enumeration of housing units and group

quarters. These service locations and pre-identified outdoor locations include: Shelters, soup kitchens, and non-sheltered outdoor

locations. These are pre-identified sheltered outdoor locations

where people live for free and we depend upon our partners to help

us identify where these areas are located. We will be conducting

the Service-Based Enumeration Operation March 29th through

March 31, 2010.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, Congressman Driehaus, I want to

close by reaffirming the Census Bureau’s commitment to an accurate count in the 2010 census. A decade of planning has ended and

now the count begins. We believe we are prepared to face the challenges I’ve discussed, and the Census Bureau looks forward to

working with this subcommittee and all of our 200,000 partners, in

making this the most successful Census ever. Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Mesenbourg follows:]

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Mr. CLAY. Thank you so much, Mr. Mesenbourg. Representative

Driehaus, you’re recognized for questions.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Mayor, if you could, just guide us through, you

know, what was the thinking? When you initially challenged the

Census count or the count that was challenged in 2005 and 2006,

what did you learn about the consequences of not accurately counting the population in terms of funding ramifications or other ramifications that would impact a city like the city of Cincinnati?

Mr. MALLORY. Congressman Driehaus, we felt it was very important upon receiving the Census update number in 2006 to really

make sure that we had an accurate representation of what was

going on in Cincinnati. Obviously, through the Census challenge,

we were credited back with more than 22,000 individuals. But

through that process we learned that the U.S. Conference of Mayors did an estimate sometime ago—I believe after the previous

Census—that for each individual missed, a city is out of about

$2,067 per person per year. So, for the city of Cincinnati, if we look

at the count that we believe to be correct that was conducted by

Social Compact we are out of about $104 million in various sources

of State and Federal funding for the last 10 years. So, $104 million

that could have gone to do a lot of great things in the city was

missed, because we did not get the most accurate count possible.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. You reference Social Compact and the count that

was conducted by Social Compact. What methodology was used by

Social Compact and are there things that they are doing that we

can learn on the Census side as we go through this enumeration?

And I’m specifically concerned, obviously, about the hard-to-count

populations, you know, what did Social Compact do that might be

different than what the Census is doing?

Mr. MALLORY. Social Compact is an organization that really focuses on information, information mining. They specialize in it is

what they do. They are a non-profit organization. They have no interest other than providing accurate information to whoever it is

that seeks the information. They use 27 different data points to establish that a person may be living at a particular address. So—

excuse me—in addition to using certificates of occupancy, they use

things like Duke Energy bills and telephone bills and credit card

information and cable bills, to determine that a person may be living at an address. Those are things that can sometimes—things

that are missed in the current processes that we have.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Mr. Mesenbourg, following up on that, this is a

concern of mine, and I think it’s the concern of many on the subcommittee. That because, you know, we do go out there and we depend upon the Census forms being returned and then if they are

not returned and we go back and knock on the door, and you mentioned you do that up to six times, to what extent are we using secondary resources like the 27 examples—though 27 were not provided—the various examples of secondary resources that are available to us to identify that, in fact, someone is living at the residence? If they didn’t answer the door on the second or third time,

what’s the chance that they are going to answer it on the third or

sixth? Doesn’t mean they don’t live there, just means we are not

counting them. How are we, as the Census, using this secondary

information to make sure the count is accurate?

27

Mr. MESENBOURG. Perhaps a few words about the challenge process of the pop estimates. The pop estimates—we put out estimates

for the Nation, for States, for counties and for local jurisdictions.

The State—the national, State, and county levels are based on administrative records. And what is key is what the 2000 base was.

So, that is basically the starting point. We then add births. We

subtract deaths, and then we collect a measure of migration, both

international and national—domestic. Those figures are put out,

the national and State in December. The sub-county levels typically

in the May/June period.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. If I could stop you for a second. You mentioned

your base is the 2000 count. Now, we have an example when that

was challenged and effectively challenged. So, do we still use the

2000 count for the base or do we use an alternate base depending

upon a challenge?

Mr. MESENBOURG. We use the 2000 base as the base for the population-estimates program. Those are events come from administrative records: Births, death records, and the international migration and the net migration. The Census, what we are going to do

is, we are going to use the Master Address file that we have created over the decade. So starting in 2007, local jurisdictions have

the opportunity to review our address file and update that and provide us with additional lists. In fact, Cincinnati provided us with

13,000—12,000 to 13,000 additional addresses. Those addresses

then went into what we call the Address Canvassing Operation

where we send 150,000 enumerators across the country between

late March 2009 and July 2009. The purpose of that operation was

to get at as complete an address list as we could before the Census.

We provided feedback back to the local jurisdictions, and they had

the opportunity to appeal those addresses, and the addresses that

they appealed are going to be included in the Census mail.

So, the key to a complete Census is the completeness to our—of

our Master Address file. So, beginning next week we will mail out

121 million questionnaires to all of those city-style addresses listed

on the Master Address file. If people take 10 minutes to complete

the form and send it back, an enumerator will never show up at

their doorstep. If they don’t, beginning May 1st we will send enumerators out and we will contact individuals up to six times. You’re

perfectly right, Congressman, it’s not always obvious if somebody

is living at that address, but we will take every effort we can to

verify that. We do not rely on administrative records to make that

determination. We depend on personal observations by the enumerator to do it. If the enumerator cannot—tells us that address

is vacant or should be removed from the mail list, we go out and

do one more check between mid July and mid August to verify that

is actually a vacant and deleted effort. So we think we go to great

lengths to make sure that we do not incorrectly delete any address

off the address list.

But to answer your question, we do not use administrative

sources to make that determination. There may still be a utility

connection and no one lives in the home. What we do depend on

are partners like Complete County Committee in Cincinnati, local

organizations in that area to help us get the message out to folks

about how important it is to participate in the Census.

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Mr. DRIEHAUS. Is the use of those secondary documents prohibited?

Mr. MESENBOURG. It’s not prohibited, but it’s given that we will

probably be sending enumerators out between 48 and 49 million

housing units. It’s just not statistically feasible to use those and to

have any hard evidence that the housing unit is actually occupied

or it’s vacant.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. But it does seem to me that if you are aware that

there’s a utility bill being paid, you know, at an address, if there’s

a cable bill being paid at an address, or you are aware that the

property has been sold, at sheriff’s sale, that would give you a pretty good indication as to whether or not an individual lives there.

Now, you could go up to those homes and knock on the doors repeatedly and not have a good idea if someone lives there or not,

but it seems to me that there are secondary resources that would

allow you to make a pretty good guess as to which households and

which apartments remain occupied, you could go back to those individual residents.

Mr. MESENBOURG. Well, it could potentially provide housing information whether the housing unit was occupied or vacant. The

administrative sources would not provide any information about

how many individuals reside in that household, what their age

was, what their characteristics are. So, that would be of a major—

that would be a major problem from the perspective of the count.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Sure.

Mr. MESENBOURG. It could be useful in proving the count of occupied housing units. It would not help us much in terms of getting

the count of the individuals that reside in that housing unit.

Mr. CLAY. Mr. Mayor, there’s a wide variance in the Census estimates of 2005, 2006, from 308,000 to—you found 378,000? I mean,

Social Compact. That’s quite a wide variance. Could you talk a little bit about your work with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, if they

found an additional 70,000 in a city like Cincinnati, then what impact does that have nationally in cities such as Atlanta or other

major American cities? Are we missing the count? Are we that far

off the count?

Mr. MALLORY. Well, Mr. Chairman, in some urban areas

throughout the United States, certainly, I think we are. The U.S.

Conference of Mayors has been focused on the issue for quite some

time. As you can imagine, this is what the conference does is it concerns itself with the issues that mayors face specifically. And we

have seen in community after community under-counts in predominantly urban areas that have resulted in funding that does not

come through, not—you know, inappropriate representation in Congress and so on. The group that I’ve mentioned, Social Compact,

has not just done the drill-down study in Cincinnati, they have

done it in a number of cities across this country. They did it in

Miami, in Detroit. They have done it in quite a few cities. I believe

they did it in St. Louis as well.

This is really an issue for the Nation itself, and working through

the Conference of Mayors we have been trying to bring about

awareness of the problem, trying to get mayors engaged so they understand they have to partner with the U.S. Census. It’s cities that

have and collect the information that is used in the Census chalVerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:36 Dec 10, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00032 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\DOCS\61934.TXT KATIE PsN: KATIE
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lenge. The Census is simply asking you to fill out a form and to

say, you know, how many numbers go in the various columns. We

have all that information. So it’s incumbent upon us as city mayors

and city administrators of doing a good job of tracing the information so we can be as accurate as possible when the Census comes

around.

Mr. CLAY. We will be—this subcommittee will be very interested

in engaging with you and the U.S. Conference of Mayors in preparation for 2020 on how we can look at best practices, and figure out

how we can get a more exact science here. I mean, in your unqualified estimate, when all of the numbers are in in the 2010 census,

what do you think the population of Cincinnati will be?

Mr. MALLORY. Well, I’m hopeful that we will be able to illustrate

that we have at least 378,259 people. We are going to work very

hard to ensure that we get the most accurate count possible. I will

say that there are still a number of concerns that U.S. Conference

of Mayors has about how Census data is collected, about certain

processes, certain issues that have been followed. I think that’s

been in the hall of Congress for a long time, but I think mayors

will add their voices to the chorus saying that there do need to be

some changes.

So, I’m hopeful that we will come out of this with 378,259, but

we will have to see.

Mr. CLAY. And apparently, you understand the importance of the

Complete Count Committee as far as increasing awareness in the

communities of the Census among hard-to-count populations. Can

you give us some examples of Complete Count Committee and encouraging participation? I heard you say you started a Complete

Count Committee in 2008?

Mr. MALLORY. We started 2 years ago, which is probably not typical for cities to do. The whole goal of Complete Count Committee

is to make sure that the information about the importance of the

Census is getting out. I think one of the advantages we have in

Cincinnati is that I have been talking about the Census since 2006,

because of the Census challenge. I’m hoping that people will be so

tired of hearing me talk about it that they will fill out the form just

to shut me up. We certainly have encouraged other cities to do the

same thing, to set up their Complete Count Committees.

I will tell you that there are cities that have not done it at this

point in time and that’s unfortunate, because it really takes someone from each of the targeted populations that can talk to those

populations to get them to understand the importance of filling out

that form and sending it back. There is still mistrust. There’s still

people that have concerns about the information being released to

some other governmental agency, and I think we talked about this

at length. Census data cannot be released in detail. It will not be

shared with any other governmental agency.

Sometimes that’s a tough message to get across to people. We

have tried very hard to get people that represent basically every

community of the city filling out the form and sending it back.

Mr. CLAY. And the Census communication plan will convey that

message also that the information that you provide will be confidential, will not be shared with any other governmental entity. As

you say, it will be kept for 72 years.

30

Mr. Mesenbourg, best practices. You know, looking at a group

like Social Compact, how does work with the bureau on what will

be best practices to—to motivate hard-to-count communities and to

get the most accurate count possible for a future Census? And I

look forward to working with you all to see if we can change some

of the processes. I mean, you just mentioned in your opening statement that some of these practices have been going on since 1790,

the first Census.

Mr. MESENBOURG. With technology—technology has changed and

I think there are great opportunities to leverage the local update

of the Census address program, that now we did one time before

the—census. So, I think it’s critical as we start thinking about the

2020 census that we think of a process that is an ongoing process

with local jurisdictions so they can feed us that information. So, we

are not in 2018 starting with an address file that we need to update at that point but rather that we are in a position where the

address file has been updated all through the decade with input

from our local jurisdictions and our local partners, and we are more

than willing to work with groups like Social Compact about how

best to do that.

And I think one of the big advantages of the challenge process

is what it has done. It has convinced mayors in some cities about

the importance of providing up-to-date information about construction permits, starts, and houses, housing units, and such; those all

are input that can help us improve the address files. So, we look

forward to coming up with new ways of doing that and certainly

a lot of this information is available electronically, and we should

be able to leverage that.

Mr. CLAY. Very good point on the challenge. Representative

Driehaus?

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There was an article

in the paper—I don’t know if it was yesterday or a few days ago—

about hiring especially in some of the hard-to-count neighborhoods

and the difficulty we have seen in hiring given our dependence on

enumerators and knocking on those doors. It concerns me that we

are having difficulty hiring people from those very neighborhoods

that we care so much about.

Can you help me better understand how we are approaching that

and whether or not we are making progress here in Cincinnati and

throughout the country when it comes to local hirers who might be

more familiar with the populations in those given neighborhoods?

Mr. MESENBOURG. Sure, Congressman. A key tenet of our hiring

is recruit and hire locally. This is especially critical as we look forward to the non-response followup operation that begins in May.

We think it’s critically important that the folks at these places that

end up knocking on doors are people from those neighborhoods,

people that are recognized within that neighborhood. So, our whole

strategy will be to hire locally.

Now—and I think you were referring to the USA Today article,

that pointed out Cincinnati was one area where we are having

some issues finding people with certain language skills. We continue to work that hard. Overall, for the nation, we are actually

running at about 120 percent above our applicant target. Not surprising, given economic conditions. Where we have special language

31

skills, we advertise those and those folks will go through a different process.

So, we are focused on the 5-percent of the local Census offices,

and we have 494 of those scattered across the United States. For

95 percent we are ahead of target in terms of applicant, 5 percent

we are experiencing problems, and those 5 percent we are focusing

hard on getting the right kind of people in to apply. One of the

ways we do that is also to use our partnership network to get the

message out, get people of those language skills to actually come

and take the test and score.

So, to get hired, it’s a completely competitive process. So, we

start with the highest score and work our way down, but if we need

people that speak Polish, Russian, something like that, that will

become a different list of applicants and we will interview off that

process.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Are you convinced that those hires are going to

be made before April 1st or shortly thereafter?

Mr. MESENBOURG. Those hires will be made by April. We will

start training for the non-response followup about the third week

in April, and those folks will start knocking on doors May 1st. So

we—our goal is to actually have more applicants than we need to

hire. Actually, about a factor of about four times as many people

as we are going to hire, and we are making some progress across

the country, but we have a few pockets that we have to do even

more work on.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. And how long is the non-response followup going

to take?

Mr. MESENBOURG. Non-response followup is scheduled to go from

May 1st to July 10, 2010, but that will depend on the cooperation

of the American public. So, our greatest wish is that we have a tremendous response rate and will be able to finish that non-response

followup even faster. If we have a worse-than-anticipated response

rate, it will take a little bit longer. But if we do end early, the enumerators that we used on non-response followup will move into

what we call ‘‘Vacant Delete Check.’’

This is what I was mentioning earlier. If cannot—if we identify

an address or housing unit as being vacant or unoccupied during

non-response followup, we will send another enumerator out to verify that, and that will start about mid-July through mid-August,

that operation.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Thank you.

Mr. CLAY. Thank you, Mr. Mesenbourg. In the 2000 census with

group-quarters, was the under-count, what is the Census Bureau

doing differently this year from how it handled group-quarters in

2006?

Mr. MESENBOURG. We have done a couple things different, Chairman, this time. The first we basically integrated the group quarter

addresses into the Master Address file.

Mr. CLAY. OK.

Mr. MESENBOURG. In 2000 we had a separate address file for

group-quarters versus housing units. This time as part of the address canvassing operation that we did in 2009, we went out and

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quarters or we were not quite clear whether it was a housing unit,

we marked it as an other living-quarters.

And then between September 23rd and October 23rd, we did a

separate address validation of about 2 million of these other living

quarter addresses. Turned out about 12 percent of them ended up

to be group-quarters. Those could be dormitories, nursing homes,

prisons, etc. So, that was one big change to get the address correct.

Starting March 1st, we did what we call a Group-Quarters Advanced Visit where we sent an enumerator out to all of the groupquarters across the United States that was to establish contact. So,

for example, the University of Cincinnati, we sent one of our staff

out to meet with staff from Cincinnati and find out what is the best

way to get data on all the students that live in dormitories, fraternity houses, sorority houses and so on; and we’d also asked questions: Where is the local housing in the Cincinnati area?

Starting May 1st, then we will—that contact person will go back

to their contacts at the University of Cincinnati and they will work

on delivering forms, and with that contact we will address a form

for every individual that lives here, and then we will arrange with

the contact when we should come back and pick up those forms,

if there are any special circumstances in terms of students who

might be off. It’s spring break, we work on that.

I think those are going to be—the big changes are we think we

have a much better address list, and we have a very focused operation through this advance visited and enumeration——

Mr. CLAY. Thank you for that. According to the Bureau, Census

Tract 16 here in Cincinnati is the hardest to count in all of the

State of Ohio, and the sixth hardest to count in the country. What

additional measures is the Bureau taking to reduce this significant

undercount in this tract?

Mr. MESENBOURG. Our whole focus is on counting the hardest to

count tracts. That has been the focus of our advertising campaign

and our partnership program. So, I think there are a number of

things that we implemented that ought to help. For the first time,

this will be a short-form-only Census. It’s ‘‘Ten questions. Ten minutes.’’ In 2000 and the previous Census, 1/6th of the housing units

got a long form. So, this Census you’ll only get a short form.

In areas with high Hispanic populations, 20 percent or more of

the population, we will be sending out a bilingual English/Spanish

form to those areas, and our testing has shown that brings in a

higher response rate.

Now, for the hardest to count tracts—and this is based on their

mail-back response rate in 2000 as well as later data in the American Community Survey. Beginning around the 1st through April

3rd, we will re-mail questionnaires to every address in those hardest to count areas. So, tract 16, everyone in that tract will get a

Census form March 15th through March 17th, and then we will followup with a complete re-mail on April 1st to April 3rd. Testing

has shown that should bump up the response rate also.

This is a first time we have done a replacement mailing in the

Census. We had not done that previously. And then we have a new

program that we are going to unleash on April 10th. We are calling

it a Neighborhood Blitz. This is being organized in those areas that

33

we do a replacement mailing and those are all the hardest to count

areas.

We are working with our partners to actually make an event on

that Saturday. It could be fire trucks going through the neighborhoods with Banner 2010. We are providing some T-shirts and that

sort of thing. But it’s really to get the message out how important

it is to send that form out.

The reason we are targeting the tracts where we are doing the

replacement mailing is we will have just delivered another form to

them. So, we want them to take the time to fill it out and get it

back, and we are hopeful that will help. We are also advertising

in 28 languages this time compared to about 18 last time. Our

partnership staff, which I think is going to be key in doing this—

we had about 600 people in 2000. We have 3,000 people in 2010,

and they speak 124 different languages in total.

So between the replacement mailing, the short form, the partnership program and the communication campaign we think—we are

quite hopeful that this is going to raise the response rate in the

hardest to count tracts.

Mr. CLAY. Thank you for that answer. Representative Driehaus?

Mr. DRIEHAUS. When you mention the Hispanic communities,

and the concentration of Hispanics in the given communities, how

large of an area are you talking about when you are talking about

the bilingual—we have a very small pockets within a given Census

tract, but there might be a high concentration of Hispanic households, for instance, in that very small pocket.

Mr. MESENBOURG. We look at the Census tract level.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. OK.

Mr. MESENBOURG. That typically has about 4,000 individuals in

it. If 20 percent or more of the housing units were Hispanic then

we target them to get a bilingual form.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Within the entire Census tract?

Mr. MESENBOURG. Within the entire Census tract. So, the entire

tract gets a bilingual form. After all, we don’t know what language

folks speak at any specific address. Now, if for some reason people

did not get a bilingual form and want a form in Spanish, Chinese,

Russian, Korean or Vietnamese, they can call our telephone assistance number and we will send them a form in that language to

help hem also.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Mr. Mesenbourg or the mayor, how are we

partnering with Cincinnati Public Schools? When I think of hardto-reach populations, the first-generation immigrant population, we

find those families in Cincinnati Public Schools through the Academy of Foreign Languages or other schools that we have here in

Cincinnati. Are we partnering in some way with Cincinnati Public

Schools to reach out to families in some way to help them to better

understand the importance of the Census?

Mr. MESENBOURG. We have a Census in Schools Program that

basically targets every school district in the United States, and we

provided—we provided information, basically a curriculum plan

that they can use. We agree wholeheartedly, Congressman, with

your assessment that very often the best way to reach a family is

through their children.

34

So during March—and each school district can pick what week

they do it—but during March they are going to do a curriculum

that focuses on how to use Census figures and then also take home

the message that the 2010 census Form is coming out in mid

March and go home and tell their parents that it’s important that

they participate.

Mr. CLAY. Any more questions for this panel?

Now, let me thank both witnesses for your testimony today.

Again, Mr. Mayor, thank you for your hospitality. This is my first

time to Cincinnati. You have a wonderful city, beautiful attractions, and I will be back. This panel is dismissed.

Mr. MALLORY. Thank you very much.

Mr. MESENBOURG. Thank you.

Mr. CLAY. Thank you. Bring the second panel forward, please.

We will now hear from our second panel. Representative Driehaus

will introduce the panel.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Thank you all very much for being here today. If

I could just briefly go through the members of the panel before us.

Our first witness is Mr. David Scharfenberger, director of training with the Working in Neighborhoods Organization here in Cincinnati. Working in Neighborhoods is an advocacy organization for

home ownership. David has trained community leaders for over 30

years and brought people together to improve their communities.

On the foreclosure issue, David has developed outreach efforts to

inform groups about what they can do to address this issue and the

resources available. A graduate of Xavier University, David also

has a Masters in Social Work from the University of Louisville.

Next we will hear from Jason Riviero. Jason currently serves as

the Ohio State director of the League of United Latin American

Citizens [LULAC]. LULAC is the oldest and largest Hispanic civil

rights organization in the country. Under his leadership, LULAC

has obtained over $500,000 to fund educational programs across

the country. In addition, Jason led the campaign to bring the 2011

LULAC National Convention here to Cincinnati, which will bring

over 15,000 attendees and over $3 million in revenue to the city.

Next on our panel is Ms. Suzanne Hopkins, director of programs,

the Center for Independent Living Options. Suzanne has 18 years

in the disability services field. She manages the staff of CILO,

which is the oldest center for independent living in Ohio, serving

individuals with disabilities in the Greater Cincinnati, Northern

Kentucky region. Founded by individuals with disabilities and

chartered in 1977 as a 501(c)3, is governed, managed, and staffed

by a majority of professionals with disabilities. CILO programs include peer support, housing referral, and personal assistance services. Suzanne was the 2001 recipient of the Dixie Harman Memorial Award recognizing her advocacy for those with disabilities.

Next, we will hear from Josh Spring, executive director with the

Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Josh graduated

from Xavier University with a Bachelors degree in social work and

is a licensed social worker. Josh came to his position at the Coalition for the Homeless upon completing his tenure with the OverThe-Rhine’s 250 unit community housing.

Our final panelist is Mr. Todd Duncan, director of housing and

food services at the University of Cincinnati with a total enrollVerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:36 Dec 10, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00038 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\DOCS\61934.TXT KATIE PsN: KATIE
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ment of over 40,000 students. Mr. Duncan is tasked with not only

student housing but also with coordination and management of the

campus’s recreation center, which exemplifies the trends on college

campuses for multi-use/multi-functional facilities. Mr. Duncan has

served in similar positions at Northern Kentucky University, the

University of Central Oklahoma, and Lindsey Wilson College. Mr.

Duncan began his career at Western Kentucky University earning

a Bachelor of Science in social studies and a Masters in education.

I thank you all for appearing before us today.

Mr. CLAY. Thank you so much, Representative Driehaus. It’s the

policy of the subcommittee to swear all witnesses in. Would you answer in the affirmative?

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. CLAY. Thank you. You may be seated. Let the record reflect

that all witnesses answered in the affirmative. Each of you will

have 5 minutes to make an opening statement and your complete

written testimony will be included in the hearing record, and Mr.

Scharfenberger, you may proceed.

STATEMENT OF DAVID SCHARFENBERGER, LEAD ORGANIZER,

TRAINING & OUTREACH PROGRAMS, WORKING IN NEIGHBORHOODS [WIN]

Mr. SCHARFENBERGER. Chairman Clay, Congressman Driehaus,

and members of the Information Policy, Census, and National Archives Subcommittee, I want to thank you for the opportunity to

address you today regarding the hard-to-count populations in

greater Cincinnati. I am here specifically to address the living conditions of those who have experienced or are going through foreclosure.

My position at Working in Neighborhoods as director of training

and lead organizer for Working in Neighborhoods, which is a nonprofit organization located in Cincinnati that began in 1978 with

the focus of empowering residents to improve their own communities and improved housing and community development.

WIN is a HUD-certified foreclosure prevention and housing counseling agency serving Hamilton, Butler, Clermont, and Warren

counties in Southwest Ohio. WIN has a track record of over 30

years of working with financial institutions and developing opportunities for qualified families to become homeowners. Since 1999,

we began to see startling increases in the number of foreclosures.

In order to respond to this need, WIN dedicated staff to provide

individual counseling and advocacy for those families to help them

work out plans to save their homes. Last year over 700 families

contacted us requesting assistance in saving their homes. Of these

families, many get discouraged, and just give up or do not follow

through. Because we have longstanding relationships with banks

and the skill and persistence of our staff, we are able to save about

70 percent of the families with whom we work.

In an attempt to document the number of families that lose their

homes in Hamilton County we began to track the homes lost to due

to foreclosure, actually sold at sheriff’s sale since 19—since 2002

we began this study. We record homes listed for sheriff’s sale and

sold, recording the address and the lender. We then compile a report, which I brought some copies of, of our last study. That gives

36

the total number of homes foreclosed on in Hamilton County and

breaks this number down by community and by lender.

I will give some of our findings regarding foreclosure based on

our research and also our work experience in the field of helping

to save people’s homes.

Looking at our study, and our last study was done, released in

March 2009, and so going back to the last 5 years from 2004

through 2008, the total number of foreclosure filings was 28,520:

Homes lost to sheriff’s sale during that 5-year period were 14,304

homes. If you assume that there are possibly three people in each

home, that means a total of almost 42,912 individuals who were

displaced due to foreclosure.

The percentage—if you look at the number of homes lost, and the

number of foreclosure filings, the percentage of numbers of homes

lost is about 50 percent to those who receive a foreclosure notice.

We have not completed our study for 2009 yet. We do know that

there were 6,714 foreclosure filings in 2009 in Hamilton County. If

the percentage of properties sold at sheriff’s sale to the total number of foreclosure filings is consistent with previous years, we may

have lost 3,357 homes last year due to foreclosure with a possible

10,071 individuals displaced.

If you look at the surrounding counties around Hamilton County,

Butler, Clermont, Warren what we are seeing in terms of trends

is that the increase number of foreclosures, the percent of increase,

is going up dramatically in those surrounding counties. That is especially in Warren County last year from 2008 to 2009, and this

is taken from statistics compiled by the Ohio Supreme Court that

the numbers went up 14.7 percent. That is for Butler, Clermont,

and Warren Counties. From 2005 to 2009 Butler County went up

54 percent, Clermont went up 65 percent, and Warren County went

up 60 percent.

If you assume that the number of foreclosures is about 50 percent of the filings, that amongst those three counties for last year

we may have seen 2,331 homes lost due to foreclosure.

Besides the impact on the actual number of homes—actual number of families who lost their homes due to foreclosure, I think we

have all seen research that talks about the impact on the community, and some of those I will just enumerate briefly.

One is the effect on property values. The effect on property values will encourage people to move if their community is going down

due to number of foreclosures, and we have seen this in Cincinnati,

and certainly Hamilton County; that people will move and will

change the makeup and the demographics of those communities.

Declining tax revenues for municipalities which means services are

harder to fund. Increased cost for taxpayers; certainly more vacant

and abandoned buildings creates more expenses for local taxpayers.

And finally, the health and well-being of those communities, because of the health conditions, the declining neighborhood conditions of those communities. These factors may push or encourage

existing homeowners in a community to look elsewhere for housing

and could result in a totally different makeup or demographics of

that community.

I have not seen, and I’ve asked the question many times, if

there’s been any tracking of where people go when they lose their

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homes. People that normally lose their homes that are in foreclosure, for one thing, are embarrassed. It’s not something that

they brag about, and if they have lost their home due to foreclosure, you know, there are a number of anecdotal information as

to where they go. Some people, maybe, I’m sure find other housing

through apartments. Although, many times if you go and try to

rent an apartment they look at credit, and your credit rating.

So, if your credit is poor after a foreclosure, it’s going to affect

your ability to find other housing. They may move in with family.

They move to another State or they may become homeless.

Recently, I’ve just heard stories of—I met with someone from a

social service agency last week who talked about, shared a story of

another woman in the community that she works in and walked

out of her house. This was a fairly middle class community, but she

walked out of her house and saw a car that was parked on the

street and it ended up being a family of four that had been displaced because of foreclosure. And this woman took the initiative

to find housing, but how many people are out there and uncounted?

I certainly—during the first panel—heard a number of testimonies, number of ideas about how to reach those populations that

are foreclosed on, homeless, displaced for a number of reasons, and

I certainly applaud those efforts. I don’t think there’s any simple

or easy answer to this problem of reaching families who are under

growing foreclosure. I think the idea of reaching out, going out into

the communities, and knocking on doors, using existing organizations, nonprofits, churches to encourage people to fill out the form

are all important.

Certainly, the information that is collected through the Census

is important to all of us in terms of documenting what is the

change to demographics in the communities that we serve, and we

hope that through the Census it will provide us that kind of information. The importance of reaching people, and encouraging people

to fill out the forms is essential and we need to do all we can do

get this right. Thank you very much.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Scharfenberger follows:]

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Mr. CLAY. Thank you very much, Mr. Scharfenberger. Mr.

Riviero, 5 minutes.

STATEMENT OF JASON RIVIERO, OHIO STATE DIRECTOR,

LEAGUE OF UNITED LATIN AMERICAN CITIZENS

Mr. RIVIERO. Thank you, good afternoon. Well, Mr. Chairman

Clay and members of the committee, Representative Driehaus,

thank you for having me here today and on behalf of the League

of United Latin American Citizens’ National Board, I would like to

express our appreciation for allowing us a few short moments to

summarize our assessment of the challenges in enumerating the

Latino community within our specific region here.

The next few minutes I would like to just point out the impressive figures of growth among new Americans and summarize both

the positive elements and areas where our community sees areas

of improvement in order to ensure a complete count.

LULAC serves as a deeply committed partner to the 2010 decennial census and its mission of complying with the U.S. Constitution’s mandate of counting every person living within this country.

All LULAC—national, State, and local officers—have been trained

and encouraged to activate LULAC’s partnership with the 2010 decennial census. LULAC serves on the National Complete Count

Committee and here locally with Mayor Mark Mallory’s Complete

Count Committee. Despite efforts like the Vitter Amendment and

others to discourage a complete count, our initiatives to combat

undercount include: Ya Es Hora, a historic non-partisan Latino

civic participation campaign launched as the Latino community’s

action-oriented followup to the immigration mobilizations of 2006.

In addition, we have a large youth-focused social media campaign with Voto Latino; national local training seminars held

across the country. In addition, our national staff works with Mr.

Thomas Mesenbourg and Ms. Irma Harahash of the National Census office to help increase the employment of Hispanics in the 2010

census.

Representing Ohio, I’d like to point out just a few important statistics because traditionally when you look at Ohio you don’t consider it one of the traditional destinations for many Latinos or new

immigrants. However, looking at the figures over the past 10 years

it’s quite a surprising jump.

So, in 2007, the foreign-born share of Ohio’s population rose from

2.4 percent in 1990 to 4.7 percent, which equals roughly about

420,000 immigrants: Of that figure, more than half are Latino. Economically, the 2008 purchasing power of Ohio’s Latinos totaled 6.1

billion, an increase of 291 percent since 1990. Moreover, the State’s

7,109 Latino owned businesses had sales receipts of 1.3 billion and

employed 11,348 people back in 2002. On a smaller scale the 1.1

percent of the State’s work force of estimated 65,000 workers were

undocumented based on the 2008 figures.

However, if this percentage of unauthorized immigrants were removed from Ohio, the State would lose 4.1 billion in expenditures,

1.8 billion in economic output and approximately 25,000 jobs.

These aforementioned figures, although impressive, are most

likely only telling half the story, I believe and most of our partners

do too. It is my professional opinion that Ohio’s Latino population

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is much higher than the level of businesses sustained in our community. As a nontraditional destination, Ohio and Cincinnati has

over the past 10 years become a destination for new immigrants 0–

5 years in the country. In Cincinnati alone the economic growth

from 1990 to 2005 was 43 percent, shadowing the 2.3 percent increase of the percentage point share among immigrant workers.

The bottom line is that emerging areas like Cincinnati deserve just

as much of a focus in effort from your traditional Latino urban

areas.

So, let me preface my next two points which is what will basically summarize where we see the positive, and where we see some

areas of improvement. The first one is, of course, it’s difficult to

baseline this just based on the 2000 census because we have seen

a tremendous jump and a tremendous effort, and I think even

within the national offices of the Census are deeply committed to

this. We can see this in the funding of the media campaigns that

are going across the country. During the group-quarter enumeration process, the U.S. Census team at both the national and local

offices throughout Ohio have exceptionally branded the Be Counted

message.

Nationally, the multi-million dollar campaign launched among

Spanish language media has been effective and demonstrates a

commitment by the national office to make a strong case for enumeration.

Locally, we have seen U.S. Census ads in Spanish language

media and Partnership Specialist active in numerous community

activities spreading a concise message of the newly revised form,

which is less intimidating, obviously, for many immigrants. The

public relations campaign has engaged local organizations and

leaders who in turn are ensuring that individuals have nothing to

fear when filling out the Census form.

In Cincinnati, I can personally confirm the local field offices success in establishing meaningful partnerships with grass-tops and

grassroots leaders.

The other spectrum I would like to point out is the Hispanic recruiting effort—and this is where we see significant recruiting efforts and I’m sure people have heard this in the past. However,

this is of particularly important interest, because it’s not just about

hiring people within our own community, but it’s also an effective

tool to enumerate in the process. So, unlike the U.S. Census Campaign awareness efforts, the factor which will truly determine high

enumeration, is the factor in which we see a falling grade.

This is demonstrated in several regions. I would like to point this

out. Based on the Chicago Census Region, we had 2.9 percent of

those employed were Hispanics out of Chicago. That was at 2000,

so the fall of last year, OK. The Charlotte Regional office of 2.9 percent after the 2000 and—2498 DAPPS, which is the Decennial Applicant Personnel and Payroll System. The percentage of Hispanics

dropped to 1.2 percent. The Detroit office with 3.48 percent, indicating the regional office was 4.4, after hiring the 2250 DAPPS, it

dropped to 0.97 percent. This is a very dismal record, I believe, in

the Census headquarters at that time. And the fall was 4.43.

Reports of total Hispanics in the U.S. Census Bureau work force

as of September 2009, employment statistics submitted by the U.S.

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Census pursuant to LULAC Census Commission’s specific request,

indicates as of pay period ending September 12, 2009, as follows—

I have the figures there statistically, but you can see them. They

are all within single digits, especially within areas that you have

a higher double-digit count of Latinos living in areas up to 20 percent in some cases.

Within Ohio alone, I can only count, I personally know that

there’s four to five supervisory positions that are filled by Latinos.

I listed them there that I know; that could have changed here recently. I don’t know if Cincinnati has hired anyone up to this point

for partnership; that could have changed. And where I see that—

we have a strong connection.

Let me point this out so that we are clear. The national offices

are very supportive of this effort, and I believe the local offices are

as well. But we where we are seeing the backlog and really the

problem situation is with our regional offices, OK. To where we are

sending applicants—somehow the problems are there.

I think our recommendation is that there are some specific cultural nuances and barriers that are preventing applicants from

coming forward and unless we are able to really increase those

numbers, it’s going to be very difficult, and considering especially

in the Hamilton areas that are very hard-to-count.

Because, traditionally—and I’ve seen this—this is more than just

having a form that is in Spanish. It’s also having people that understand the culture, and that basically, you know, look like you

and me. That is a fair case to make, I believe.

So, as a State Director for Ohio I would like to thank you for the

opportunity to share our insight as it relates to the Latino community and I would like to open it up for questions.

Mr. CLAY. Thank you so much, Mr. Riviero, and we will now go

to Ms. Hopkins for 5 minutes. You may proceed.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Riviero follows:]

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STATEMENT BY SUZANNE HOPKINS, DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS, THE CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING OPTIONS,

INC.

Ms. HOPKINS. Thank you, Chairman Clay, Representative

Driehaus, and distinguished members of the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives, for holding this

important hearing. I appreciate the opportunity to submit testimony on a topic that could have a significant impact on my own

life and the lives of other individuals with disabilities.

Again, my name is Suzanne Hopkins. I’m the director of programs for the Center for Independent Living Options [CILO], that’s

is our acronym, which serves as an advocacy and public education

center for individuals with a broad range of significant disabilities

in the seven counties included in the Cincinnati Metropolitan area.

CILO delivers high quality comprehensive cross-disability based

independent living services to over 1,500 individuals annually.

In CILO’S efforts to serve our consumers we have recognized the

following reasons why people with disabilities are under or uncounted. Many people with disabilities do not report or claim to

have the disability due to modesty or embarrassment. Another attributing factor is the design of the survey questions. Due to ethnic

culture many people do not recognize the name of their diagnosis

and, therefore, don’t record it.

For instance, diabetes versus bad blood sugar. If we have a national healthcare system it would not be under-reported for each diagnosis or specific type of disability. Also clustering specific types

of disabilities into one specific category. For instance, those with

blindness and deafness are all listed under sensory conditions in

disabilities rather than separately.

A kitchen sink definition of disability, for example: One or more

activities of daily living or instruments of daily living such as using

a wheelchair, a cane, crutches or a walker or recipient of Federal

disability benefits. This definition excludes those with primary disabilities of cognitive or psychiatric disabilities.

Also, not reporting—another reason is not reporting health conditions or secondary disabilities. Many individuals have a primary

disability but do not list their secondary disability or other conditions that they may have. Again, depending on ethnic culture or

need for personal care assistance those residing is subsidized housing may not report all members in the household due to fear of losing their rental assistance subsidy.

Furthermore, inconsistent reporting definitions of disabilities

such as the survey of income and program participation [SIP] Report. They exclude the—excluded on their report are people with

disabilities that are unable to work, those who are on SSI, SSCI,

Medicaid, Medicare beneficiaries and those who are institutionalized.

In consistent survey questions, to estimate the number of people

with disabilities used by the Census Bureau’s American Community Surveys and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Operation

Survey, subsequently, they will yield different estimates of number

of people with disabilities because they identify the population with

disabilities differently.

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So, those reports are not consistent, those two different reports.

Conflicting data could create confusion with elected officials and

policymakers who question the data’s credibility and reliability.

Such an outcome would potentially complicate an independent living center’s advocacy effort even more. Careful attention will be

needed for how the data is used, how the differences are explained,

and what policy conclusions are reached as a result. A possible solution could be to design a Federal program to count the number

of people with disabilities.

And, last, unemployment rate among people with disabilities—

people with disabilities that are left out of the labor force, because

it drops people who have not actively looked for work in the past

4 weeks thus people that are disabled are discouraged in the job

search process and it also misses people on SSCI and SSI. It would

affect—in regards to funding, the Census data directly effects funding, many programs critical to individuals with disabilities, including programs for education, healthcare transportation, employment

training and housing. The Federal Government uses Census information to guide the annual distribution of approximately 15 billion

in—people with disabilities.

For example, the information is used to for IL dollars; Independent Living dollars is what the acronym stands for, are allocated to

the States based on total population. The population in Ohio is declining; therefore, so is independent living funding, even though the

disabled population will be growing because of the aging of the

baby boomers.

If the Census provided a means to accurately count people with

disabilities in each State, the information could be used in the allocation process. It would also help State and county agencies plan

for eligible recipients under the Medicare, Medicaid and supplemental security income programs. Distribute funds and people with

disabilities and the elderly under the Rehabilitation Act, distribute

funds for housing people with disabilities under the Housing and

Urban Development Act, ensure that comparable public transportation services are available for all segments of the population

under the Americans with Disabilities Act or Federal grants under

the older Americans Act based on the number of elderly people

with physical and mental disabilities, and make available special

education for children ages 3 to 5 through special education

preschools.

As Mayor Mallory testified, and stated in his testimony, Cincinnati is estimated to be undercounted by approximately 45,000

people. We would like to know how many of these individuals have

disabilities in the Greater Cincinnati area. For each person not

counted, the city of Cincinnati loses $2,263 per year in Federal

funding.

Mr. Chairman and Representative Driehaus, members of the

committee, that concludes my testimony. Thank you for this opportunity. I open it up to questions.

Mr. CLAY. Thank you so much. Mr. Spring, you’re recognized for

5 minutes.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Hopkins follows:]

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STATEMENT OF JOSH SPRING, GREATER CINCINNATI

COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS

Mr. SPRING. My name is Josh Spring. I am the executive director

of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition of the Homeless. We have been

around since 1984. We are the organization where all organizations

related to homelessness come together. We have approximately 49

member agencies in the Greater Cincinnati area; that covers most

of Hamilton County and a little bit outside that.

Generally speaking, there are kind of three levels or forms of

homeless that is an important distinction to make. The first level

is people who stay outside. People not in a shelter system, not in

a normal living setting that might be under a bridge, an abandoned

building, things like this. In 2000, this particular population of

Cincinnati was severely undercounted. According to the Census,

two people were sleeping outside in Cincinnati. Two. Two whole

people. And so it was severely wrong, and we don’t want to—we essentially don’t want this to happen again.

So, actually, this particular part, our community, we do this

count three to four times a year anyway. HUD Housing and Urban

Development requires one and we try to do better than that. And

so the way we do it, we come together about once every quarter,

we go out in teams, and we do a count very similar, first and last

name, last known Social, birthday, very similar questions and we

usually turn around good results because we take out the outreach

workers that are on the street every single day. And so they lead

us into the camps and we get it down quick.

In this shelter system—that’s kind of the next level—people that

are in the shelter system or transitional housing. Those people, you

know, we estimate that there’s approximately 1,200 to 1,500 people

on any given night within that particular system. It’s my understanding that our organizations have been working with the Census workers and that Census workers are setting up times and

dates to come and actually help administer forms.

This is an important step for our shelters and like that, will need

to have the forms in bulk prepared. This is something where mailing alone simply will not get the job done. And, so, it’s also important, and this is the part that we want to come in with, is that our

case managers, our social workers at these sites understand how

important this is and how simple it can be. Their jobs are already

tough enough. They have high case loads, because it’s not going

down. It’s on the rise and adding one more form can be difficult.

But we are used to doing these kinds of things in terms of trying

to register people to vote, for example, coordinating the giving and

taking of forms. And so we want to do that again.

Further—this is kind of the third tract and definitively going to

be the most difficult to count, I believe: The group of people that

are constantly moving from one household, one family friend to the

next. You know, we have termed that as ‘‘couch surfing.’’ This is

going to be the most difficult because Housing and Urban Development does not define that group as homeless because funding from

HUD doesn’t interact with these people very often.

So we don’t know how many people there are. In 2000, we estimated that in a given year 25,000 people experienced homelessness

in Cincinnati incorporating all three of these forms. We don’t

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know—we are sure it’s higher due to the economic crisis we are

currently experiencing.

One of the main hassles, I believe, is going to be when the form

hits the door of a household and to have somebody there that is

staying a couple nights, one—the transitory nature of this. You

know, they might be here just a couple nights and move on. They

may not understand—‘‘Where do I put down that I’m living? I’m

living here and I don’t know where I’m going to be tomorrow

night.’’ Further than that is, kind of the fear of the landlord finding

out and evicting the host.

So, I think it’s important that we continue the message that this

information is not to criminalize you, this information is held in secret, the specifics for decades. That is very important.

And further we do have—the most connection we have right now,

as you know that through the Stimulus Plan there were rapid rehousing dollars and homeless prevention dollars that came forth to

localities. Those dollars in the recent months have opened up a

slight avenue for us to have communication with this body of people. We have a local phone number, 381–SAFE where people call

in to get this assistance.

So, on a daily basis we can get numbers of how many people are

calling; that gives an extremely small snapshot of what might be

going on.

For ourselves, our own initiatives, for the people outside, we have

been in communication with the Census workers for some months

now. What we want to do is simply schedule another one of our

counts. We have actually scheduled two tentative dates for the end

of this month to try to be flexible with Census workers. We can go

out and they can join us, and we can get the count done.

We will always miss some people because we have vacant buildings and cannot go in all of them. It’s dangerous to do so. But we

can really get the count done. The last count that we completed a

month and a half ago, we counted about 75 people outside.

Further, in the shelter system, like I said, some strong coordination with just getting the forms, making them available. That is

the biggest thing. If they are available and it’s easy to get it done.

The couch surfing we want to be more than helpful with polling the

contacts from the hotline.

Locally, I think the Census Bureau, the local workers have

been—have been very passionate about getting this done. They

have contacted us thoroughly. I think the one and only criticism

that I would offer, it’s not about any specific person at all, because

everyone I’ve spoken with has been more than helpful, is that we

have—I’ve gotten calls from numerous Census workers with the

same questions and I always give the same answers.

So, it’s just a hassle to try to coordinate all the calls. So, if we

get down to one kind of line item—I think I’m almost there—one

person to talk to, we can get this done. And we do believe it’s important, because for funding efforts, for advocacy, for the whole

thing, we have to know how many people are experiencing this and

the number is versus 2000 and now there are more people experiencing homelessness.

In the winter, our shelter numbers go higher. That’s the same

across the country. This year we have winter numbers in August.

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That is new. And we don’t have a grasp on what is going on overall. We want to have a grasp of who is doubled up, because we

know that people, before they hit the shelter system, they are doubled up. We would like to be able to help them so the Federal Government has a real accurate snapshot of that group. That might alleviate, give more funding to help people in the shelter.

Mr. CLAY. All right. Thank you so much, Mr. Spring. Mr. Duncan, you’re recognized for 5 minutes.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Spring follows:]

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STATEMENT OF TODD DUNCAN, DIRECTOR OF HOUSING AND

FOOD SERVICES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you, Chairman Clay, Representative

Driehaus, and other distinguished members of the Information Policy, Census, and National Archives Subcommittee. Thank you for

the opportunity to testify today. My name is Todd Duncan. I serve

as the director of housing and food services of University of Cincinnati, responsible for overseeing the financial facility and administrative functions of the University’s housing system.

As background, for those who are unfamiliar with the University,

UC is classified as a research university, very high in research activity, by the Carnegie Commission, and is ranked as one of America’s top public research universities by the National Science Foundation with a student population, including undergraduates and

graduate students, of approximately 40,000; 3,800 of these students

live in eight university residence halls, 84 percent of our first-year

students reside in our facilities. The facilities range in size and

level of amenities.

In my opening statement, I will briefly discuss UC’s interaction

with Census officials to date, identify some of the challenges experienced by my department and offer suggestions for your consideration regarding efficient and effective enumeration of students, residential or commuter, at colleges and universities.

During the question-and-answer period, I’ll be happy to expand

on these topics and provide my thoughts about how Census officials

may be able that ensure a more efficient and accurate count of students as preparations are made for the 2010 census.

Various Census officials made independent contact with the Office of Housing and Food Services last September. The purpose of

each meeting was to confirm address, contact information and current occupancy of specific residence halls. Some residence halls

were duplicated and other residence halls were not identified in the

inquiries made to our staff. Our staff requested to establish a single point of contact at the Census office.

In February 2010, our office was visited independently by two

members of the Census staff verifying the information collected in

September 2009 and providing marketing material of the upcoming

Census. Enumeration was reviewed and was determined that another planning meeting would be scheduled prior to the enumeration period of March 30th to May 14, 2010.

Again, our staff requested to establish a single point of contact

at the Census office. I must make note that the Census staff has

been very professional in all interactions. On March 10, 2010, a

planning meeting was held with Mr. Howard Newcastle, director of

field staff.

With a goal of ensuring an accurate count of students, residential

or commuter, I offered the following suggestions for developing an

efficient and effective methodology for implementing the 2020 census for colleges and universities: Single point of contact. One person or one team from the Census Bureau contacts the President’s

Office of the institution seeking a similar single point of contact.

Electronic delivery. Allow institutions of higher education to deliver

the Census survey via electronic methods.

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Today’s student/institution interaction is an electronic process for

most institutions, from the admission application and academic

registration to billing and issuance of grades. These systems have

well-developed securities with student-unique log-ins to insure data

integrity. At the end of the prescribed period the institution can

easily deliver the responsive data and the directory information of

non-responsive students in accordance with FERPA.

During the question-and-answer period, I’m be happy to identify

my experiences of the 2000 census during my tenure at the University of Central Oklahoma or expand on the information I have provided. Again, I thank the subcommittee for the opportunity to testify today.

Mr. CLAY. Thank you so much, Mr. Duncan, and thank you the

entire panel for their testimony today, and we will begin the round

of questioning with Representative Driehaus.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Duncan follows:]

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Mr. DRIEHAUS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I have several

questions.

Mr. Spring, you talked about the difficulty of counting the various groups of homeless, and you talked in part about some of the

folks sleeping outside. Give more to the first panel in terms of

when this count will take place for the hard-to-locate. We are talking about spring going into early summer. It seems to me that’s

when you’re going to have more and more people moving out of the

shelters and spending the evenings outside. Does that become a

problem for you and the organizations you work with in terms of

trying to count those individuals?

Mr. SPRING. You are correct. There will be more people outside.

For us it’s not too much of an issue, because, we actually have average workers on the street level at least 5 days a week, every

week. What makes our count that we do go so smoothly is that

they give everybody a heads-up that we are coming. That’s why we

really want to join with the Census workers and do it that way;

otherwise, it simply will not work.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Have you worked with the Census office locally

to have someone from the Homeless Coalition employed by the

Census Bureau for this specific purpose of reaching out to the

homeless population in Cincinnati?

Mr. SPRING. We have not talked about employment. I’ve definitely, several times, relayed that we can do this count and we

want Census workers to join us. So, it seems like right now what

is in question is whether or not they’re allowed to do the count in

that fashion. And I’ve attempted to let them know that there really

is no other fashion that will work; you cannot mail it, and the Census workers don’t know where the camps are.

Honestly, if we simply said, ‘‘These are all the camps,’’ and a

worker goes, it’s very likely the people at the camp won’t talk.

That’s why we take outreach workers with us.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Right. And of the organizations that existed today

as it existed in 2000 as well.

Mr. SPRING. That’s right.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. And we came up with a rather significant

undercount. And so I guess what I’m concerned about is making

sure that, you know, people of the Homeless Coalition are, in fact,

working very closely with the Census to reach out, because in the

constitution it says ‘‘All persons.’’ It doesn’t say, ‘‘All persons that

own a single-family home’’ or ‘‘All persons that live in an apartment.’’ It’s ‘‘All persons,’’ and so the homeless are certainly part of

that count.

So I would certainly encourage the representatives to hire someone on specific to this purpose of, you know, counting the homeless

population especially if we already have a model here in place here

in Cincinnati. So, I appreciate that.

Mr. SPRING. Certainly, thank you.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Jason, if I could speak to the Hispanic community

for a minute. You heard in the first panel that when 20 percent of

the population of a given Census tract is deemed to be Hispanic or

of another ethnicity that they will use an additional form, in Spanish, for example. There aren’t many tracts like that in Cincinnati,

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if there are any. Yet, we have a sizable growing Hispanic population.

I’m concerned that this, you know, Spanish language form will

not be used in any of those tracts, given it won’t reach the 20 percent threshold. However, we have very strong pockets of Hispanics

living in Greater Cincinnati. Certainly, in parts of Price Hill and

Butler County, Carthage.

Obviously, with, you know, St. Charles and the outreach that Su

Casa does, is there a way to work with the Census Bureau in identifying those pockets and getting those forms to those households

other than determining or using that threshold of 20 percent of

Census tract?

Mr. RIVIERO. I think so, based on my conversations with some of

these specialists here locally. They have set up different community

partnerships similar to Mr. Spring’s situation, where highly trafficked Latino populations that go and receive services.

I think my concern is in the areas where families don’t typically

go through these processes, that some of the enumerators are unfamiliar with those tracts. The tracts that they hire are, let’s say—

because it’s so spread out, they don’t actually live in that neighborhood. So, I think it’s important to hire folks, enumerators that live

within those areas, or at least try to find someone that is closer to

them, because Cincinnati is spread out. It doesn’t make sense to

have someone that lives in Hamilton County coming down and

going up to Butler County.

Or, you know, that’s not going to necessarily be the case, but I

think it’s very important to be in those areas. And, yes, the 20 percent threshold would be difficult to reach, even many—so many

other places across the country that can reach that kind of threshold.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. You know, I have a feeling and I assume, that

this is true and many non-traditional households, especially first

generation, second generation immigrants, not just Hispanics. We

have a large and growing West African population in Cincinnati.

You have households living—multiple individuals living in the

same house; sometimes they are documented, sometimes they are

undocumented.

What is the likelihood that they are going to open the door for

someone knocking on the door wanting to know how many people

are in? And how do we overcome the fear in that, you know, what

I think would come with that type of questioning?

Mr. RIVIERO. Certainly, and that goes back to what I was referring to in the report; that besides knowing Spanish I think it’s important to have other qualifications. Looking at other agencies,

other governmental agencies, you see that there’s some more specific guidelines in regard to minority groups and different requirements for people to apply.

I know that basically the only differentiation is the language

skill set, but I think there should be other requirements that we

put forth in that as far as knowledge of the community. Perhaps

being born in a foreign country or having that experience in your

background is very important because, yes, it’s an official, someone

that they are already going to have some prejudice toward. I mean,

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I don’t know if I made myself clear with that as far as the hiring

process.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Well, I just think it’s important that we are getting the right people to knock on the doors because it does matter.

It does matter. It’s not just about language, it’s about trust. And

so getting, you know, recognizable faces and getting people that understand people’s situations I think is important especially if we

are going to try to get an accurate count.

We could have people knocking on the doors, but if it’s not the

right people that understand the community, that understand the

population they are working with, it’s going to be an undercount,

because we are not going to get people to be forthright in terms of

reporting everyone living in the household.

Mr. RIVIERO. That’s right and I think that is the same for all minorities, so——

Mr. DRIEHAUS. I can continue or I can turn it over and we can

go back and forth. Whatever you prefer.

Mr. CLAY. We will go back. Mr. Scharfenberger, the Postal Service says that 40 percent of the houses in Census Tract 16 here in

Cincinnati are either vacant or occupied illegally. Obviously, that

poses several challenges for the Census.

In your experience, when people occupying homes illegally,

known as squatters, participate in a Census how can we effectively

count this segment?

Mr. SCHARFENBERGER. I think that is a good question. One of

the—there were a couple of elements that other people mentioned

that I think are common to people in foreclosure or who might be

sliding. No. 1, there’s a sense of fear in whether they even respond

to a mailing. I think in terms of—it’s a good question. Whether people would respond to a Census enumerator coming out, if they were

squatting in that building?

Unless there was a trusted person that encouraged them to fill

this out, it’s possible or if they could meet that person at another

location, you know, I was thinking that rather than at the house.

But I can’t imagine that if they were squatting that they are going

to want to fill out a Census form.

Mr. CLAY. Be kind of difficult.

Mr. SCHARFENBERGER. It would be very difficult. I think the

other situation that I thought about as other people were talking,

Mr. Spring and Mr. Riviero, if someone is in between and awaiting

for, I guess, the hammer to drop for lack of a better word. They

are waiting for that sheriff’s sale, and some people wait in the

house; and even after the sheriff’s sale they will wait. Will they fill

out a Census form not knowing what their situation is going to be?

Mr. CLAY. OK. Good point. Ms. Hopkins, what is the best way

to get the word out that the information you provide to the Census

Bureau is confidential as well as the benefits, like you mentioned

in your testimony, to the disabled community for filling out their

Census forms? I mean, is it publications? Is it radio, TV, or Internet or all of the above?

Ms. HOPKINS. I would say all ways of media, especially, those for

non-profit agencies such as ours, if you could provide us some information to distribute to your consumers with disabilities, all other

disability-related agencies that provide services to individuals with

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disabilities. I understand there’s a question-assistance center for

those with visual impairments, hearing impairments that could assist them with completing the questionnaire. However, I’m not familiar with where that question assistance center may be located

in Cincinnati.

So, that would be helpful for us to distribute information to individuals with disabilities.

Also if there’s any type of literature to be handed out, that it also

be in the format of Braille, large print and other formats to make

better accessibility for individuals with disabilities.

Mr. CLAY. And the Census Bureau does provide information in

Braille. Mr. Duncan, did the university get a single point of contact

from the Bureau?

Mr. DUNCAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. CLAY. OK. That’s good to know. Let me ask you about, you

know, of course the whole issue of semesters beginning and ending.

If enumerators come after May 1st, will you have a reduced population on campus?

Mr. DUNCAN. Chairman Clay, UC has a very unique academic

calendar. We are on a quarter system and a very late quarter system, so we do not dismiss for the summer until mid-June. So we

are safe there.

Mr. CLAY. I see. Yes, you are.

Mr. DUNCAN. Your question is applicable in 95 percent of the

universities in the country. We are one of the anomalies in that regard.

Mr. CLAY. It’s good to know that they hang around here for

longer on the campus. I’ll turn it back over to Representative

Driehaus.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Mr. Duncan, the Census obviously uses an address system for trying to contact individuals. So, you know, it’s

based on household not on individual. Your system, I assume, in

tracking students, I was interested in your electronic delivery

methodology. I assume that is student-oriented. So, how would you

then be able to transpose that data into an address-type system

that is used by the Census? Are you following me?

Mr. DUNCAN. I am. Each student is assigned a bed space within

our housing system, which is in a room, which is in a building,

which is in a mailing address. So, when the student logs in with

their unique identifier into the system we can self populate that information. What building, residence hall, they are actually in, what

is the room number, which would be essentially the mailing address.

That is publicly used, so that defaults in. Even simplifying the

data that we provide, Todd Duncan, in room 101 of Building 1, and

then here are my responses to the survey.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. So, in addition to the questionnaires being returned, they can check that against the information that is provided by the university saying, ‘‘Well, in fact, Mr. Duncan you

should be in room 201 in this housing development?’’

Mr. DUNCAN. Yes.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Are you using any form of social media to reach

out to the student body? I assume there are communication methVerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:36 Dec 10, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00073 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\DOCS\61934.TXT KATIE PsN: KATIE
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ods that exist today to reach out in terms of social media to encourage people to participate in the Census, such as students?

Mr. DUNCAN. We are not doing that ourselves. Now, the Census

Bureau itself may have been getting out there with Facebook, those

types of things. The most effective way we have still with our residential students is mass email. We send that message only to those

students with directions. We do that multiple times in a quarter

with everything from getting ready to check out at the end of the

quarter, to going home for the summer.

When a student applies to the university they are issued an

email account, and it’s identified to them at that point if they confirm their admission that this is the official point where the university will communicate with you. So, that is set in stone before they

actually enroll the very first time to take their very first class at

the university.

So, we have a very effective way of communicating at the university. They are looking for an email and that easily for our purposes

could be forwarded onto their parents; but in the case of the Census, they just need to complete this.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. So the day the questionnaires go out, the day the

surveys go out, you are able to say, ‘‘Please complete the survey

and send it back?’’

Mr. DUNCAN. We can send out a reminder 8 days later to those

who have not responded; not trouble students that have, just crossreference the data real quick, run a little query—‘‘OK, this 30 percent has not, so let’s only send out that 30 percent. Hey, you still

got 2 days, let’s get this in, come on.’’ If that doesn’t work, we go

to the face-to-face.

But we should be able to do it in the most efficient and the most

expedient way. One percent of Cincinnati’s population, if I’m doing

the round math—of the numbers we have heard today, we should

be the easiest.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Ms. Hopkins, can you tell me how CILO is working with other organizations here in Cincinnati around the Census

to help the folks that you work with specifically, understand the

importance of completing the Census and the consequences in

terms of the disabled community and undercounting of the population that it serves?

You’re part of a broader network of organizations, obviously,

reaching out to individuals with disabilities in Cincinnati. Is there

a network of some type that is being called upon to reach out for

purposes of the Census?

Ms. HOPKINS. We are not necessarily a network. We are the only

Center for Independent Living in the Greater Cincinnati area.

However, we are a network of 11 centers for Independent Living

in the State of Ohio and 435 within the United States.

However, we are each our own entity. We do network or collaborate with a lot of other disability-related organizations as well as

we have some—a couple of homeless disability service programs for

individuals with disabilities and families with disabilities and our

organization is also a member of the Coalition for the Homeless as

well.

As far as the Census goes, we have not started any advocacy efforts on that yet, but we would be more than happy to do so.

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Mr. DRIEHAUS. Yeah, I’m just thinking of the multiple entities

here in town that work with people with disabilities and whether

or not there has been a coordinated effort of any type to reach out

to those served in, you know—just trying to emphasize the completion of the Census and the consequences of an undercount especially for the disabled community?

Ms. HOPKINS. Not that I’m aware of. However, most disabilityrelated organizations, they are targeted toward a specific type of

disability. However, we are unique in the fact that we serve crossdisability-based. Meaning, we serve of all types of disabilities of all

ages.

So, we would be, in my opinion, the prime agency to get that

started or initiate such a process for the Census. If you have any

suggestions or ideas, we are more than happy to comply with those.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Great, thank you.

Mr. CLAY. Could we add another seat here for Mr. Mesenbourg?

We would like to ask you to join us back at the table, so that we

may do a little followup and expedite it quickly. And I’ll let Representative Driehaus take it from here.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. Mr. Mesenbourg, thank you for hanging around.

This conversation is really at the heart of what we are concerned

about when it comes to hard-to-count populations. And so I’m interested especially—and I keep going back to this secondary data but

these are the organizations that are rich with this data, especially

for hard-to-count populations.

So, I’m concerned that the Census Bureau is working very closely

with grassroots organizations such as this to call upon them, especially for their secondary data, to help identify those that are particularly difficult to count.

Mr. MESENBOURG. This panel has reinforced the importance of

what we call our partners, and we now have 212,000 of them. They

serve really as the trusted voices. They can convince the homeless

and convince the Latino that has concerns about the Census. It

could be the minister in the local church. We can do all the advertising in the world and spend endless amounts of money on it. But

it’s really the trusted voices in the communities that play a key

role in convincing people that have concerns about reporting, that

it’s safe to report, it’s easy to report, and it’s important to report.

So, I think this panel has re-enforced that. We are working with

all of these organizations and we will continue to work with them.

In terms of the disabled, we do have a tool kit available on our

Web site that folks can download and put out to their partners. We

have also, in the American Community Survey in 2008, actually,

changed the questions related to disabled persons. So for the first

time in the 2009 survey, we’re separately counting the seeing-impaired and hearing-impaired, and we are also for the first time

measuring folks with cognitive issues and so on.

So, I think that really that is the largest household survey done

in the United States and I think that’s an important first step in

getting good measures of the disabled.

With the homeless, we are working with Mr. Spring’s organization and actually what we will do, we want to leverage their expertise. We will send folks at the end of this month to actually participate in that count. We will swear them in as Census employees to

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assist us. We clearly understand we need the gatekeeper to get us

into that community. And help, so that will start March 29th, 30th,

and 31st. So we look forward to working with them.

The question on the foreclosures and squatters, clearly that’s a

difficult issue. If we can’t get a response in our six contacts, what

we will do is then go to the neighbors. And if people had seen there

are five people living there we will try to get a proxy measurement

and that’s about the best we can do.

I take LULAC’s point about some of our recruiting numbers. We

are taking this quite seriously. And right now we have more recent

data. Actually, we started sharing information by race and ethnicity starting in August or September of last year, and we are putting that data out monthly. So, we are monitoring it ourselves.

One of the challenges we face in the Detroit Regional Office is

the number of Hispanics. Michigan has about 4.1 percent, Ohio 2.6,

West Virginia 1.1. So, we are at right about 3 percent in terms of

our work force. We are doing better than that with our partnerships, but there’s always room for improvement. I think we all

agree that we need to hire locally. We need to know people that

know the neighborhood, and that is what we are working quite

hard to do, and that’s where our partners can help too.

It’s also a competitive process how people score in the test. That

is important. We certainly appreciate the help we are getting from

the University of Cincinnati and others. This is a partnership and

we all have to work together. The Census Bureau cannot do it

alone, nor can the partners that support us. We are very thankful

for the support we are getting from everyone.

Mr. CLAY. And I’m certainly encouraged by the approach that the

Bureau has taken in this Census to realize that you do need a true

partnership with people. I think it’s pretty innovative that you will

deputize Mr. Spring’s people and let them assist. I mean, because

we have heard it in other cities too, that we can go and look over

the Census-takers, show them, but you can’t do it. I understand

that.

So, you figured out how to do it. It’s critical that we do this. The

whole community in your process. Thank you so much for that.

Mr. DRIEHAUS. I would just reiterate my concern that I hope the

Census Bureau is using secondary source data and that we have

people researching to verify what we should be seeing; not only are

we talking about the neighbors who might be living there, but we

have a good idea that unit is occupied.

So, it’s worth trying to get them to fill out a form and try to identify the specific individuals living in that particular household. I

think, you know, a lot has changed in terms of the last 10 years

in terms of the data available to us. It would be a shame not to

do everything that we can to call upon that data and resources in

order to get an accurate count.

Mr. CLAY. And, Mr. Riviero, hopefully you will get with your regional director and start referring some of the members of the organization to take the Census test, and that they can get involved

too.

OK. This will conclude the hearing. Let me, again, thank all of

our witnesses, thank my colleagues and friends, Representative

Driehaus for the invitation. Timing-wise this was perfect, and this

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community was the perfect setting for this hearing. I appreciate

your invitation and I thank you all for your testimony. And that

concludes this hearing.

[Whereupon, the subcommittee was adjourned.]

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