Report to Congress

DRAFT 2/14/00 5:05 PM

The Concerns of the Hard-to-Count 

Communities

Summary from the Undercount Summit

And the Hispanic Federation Forum

18 January 2000

U.S. Census Monitoring Board

Congressional Members

4700 Silver Hill Road

P.O. Box 610

Suitland, MD 20752

(301) 457-5080

www.cmbc.gov

email: feedback@cmbc.gov

18 January 2000

The Honorable Albert Gore

President

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert

Speaker

United States House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. President and Mr. Speaker:

The Congressional Members of the U.S. Census Monitoring Board have, during 

the past year and a half, devoted hundreds of hours listening to, and talking with, 

a diverse group of true census stakeholders throughout the country. They 

include state and local governments and elected officials; community leaders; 

and the people who really live, work and serve in neighborhoods known to be 

hard-to-count and at risk for being missed in Census 2000.

While the unprecedented efforts of the Census Bureau will reach the majority of 

the households in America, there are still people who will not participate in the 

census. These disproportionately include members of poor, minority, urban, and 

immigrant communities, and children that are traditionally missed by the census. 

Many live in linguistically isolated communities and many are distrustful of the 

government. They live in America’s hard-to-count neighborhoods—in the barrios, 

inner cities, remote rural areas, and reservations. These are the people who 

most need an accurate census for their fair share of political representation and 

more than $180 billion in federal funds for health care, education, community 

development, transportation and many other programs that enhance their daily 

lives. It is these very people, however, who are most often missed or overlooked 

in the Census.

The following report provides a summary of the comments and recommendations 

made by a broad range of census stakeholders with whom the Board has met 

and who participated in an “Undercount Summit” organized by the Congressional 

Members of the Board and held at the National Press Club in Washington. The 

report also provides similar observations made by the participants at the Hispanic 

Federation Forum sponsored by the Presidential Members of the Board and held 

in New York City. The Congressional Members also participated in that Forum.

This report summarizes the concerns expressed by the participants in the 

Undercount Summit and the Hispanic Federation Forum that the Census 

Bureau’s efforts are not sufficient to encourage people living in hard-to-count 

neighborhoods to participate in the census. The two groups identified barriers to 

counting hard-to-count neighborhoods and populations, and offered several 

recommendations they believe would encourage participation in Census 2000 in 

hard-to-count neighborhoods. A videotape with highlights of the Congressional 

Members’ Undercount Summit is available by calling 301/457-5080. 

 

U.S. CENSUS 

MONITORING

BOARD

CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS

4700 Silver Hill Road

FOB #3 ~ Suite 1230

Suitland, MD 20746

Phone: (301) 457-5080

Fax: (301) 457-5081

J. Kenneth Blackwell

Co-Chair

David Murray

A. Mark Neuman

Joe D. Whitley

______________________

Fred Asbell

Executive Director
Four of the recommendations mentioned the most include:

• Obtain a waiver or income exemption for persons receiving government assistance, 

including TANF and Food Stamps, for persons temporarily employed for the decennial 

census. Hiring residents to be enumerators in many economically disadvantaged neighborhoods 

will depend on granting such a waiver and many persons and groups, including the American 

Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), share this concern.

• Utilize local residents as “facilitators” to assist enumerators in hard-to-count 

neighborhoods. Regional Directors and Local Census Office (LCO) Managers must have the 

operational freedom to hire trusted persons from the community (who may not be able to pass the 

Bureau’s hiring test) to assist the enumerators by knocking on the doors and ensuring that residents 

will have the confidence to answer the census. 

• Ensure that bilingual, culturally sensitive persons—including non-citizens—are hired in 

linguistically isolated neighborhoods. Non-citizens may have to be hired, either as enumerators 

or “facilitators,” to ensure that certain communities are counted in Census 2000. Therefore, the 

Bureau should do everything possible to ensure that LCO Managers can recruit and hire culturally 

sensitive persons to take the census. The Bureau must clarify all hiring guidelines.

• Ensure that neighborhoods that are entirely Spanish speaking receive a notice written in 

Spanish letting the residents know that Spanish questionnaires are available and how to 

receive those questionnaires. Residents in neighborhoods that are entirely Spanish speaking, 

such as Cameron Park colonias, will receive a letter written in English alerting them of the census 

and the availability of Spanish-language questionnaires. The Regional Census Centers and the 

Local Census Offices have the authority to deliver notices written in Spanish, or the appropriate 

dominant language, in these neighborhoods. Clearly, there are a number of neighborhoods 

throughout the country where initial contact in their own language will be essential to ensuring that 

every resident is counted.

While the Census Bureau will say that many of the recommendations made in this report are being 

implemented, the comments by the participants in the Undercount Summit and the Hispanic Federation 

Forum, as well as the field observations of the Congressional Members of the Board, suggest 

otherwise.

It is our hope that these solutions and suggestions made in this report by real people with real concerns 

will help the Census Bureau and result in a census that is fair and accurate to every demographic group 

and most importantly at every geographic level—including hard-to-count neighborhoods.

Sincerely,

J. Kenneth Blackwell Dr. David W. Murray

Co-Chairman Congressional Member

A. Mark Neuman Joe Whitley

Congressional Member Congressional Member
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

Contents

Letter of Transmittal i

I. Background 1

II. Summary: Barriers and Concerns 6

III. Solutions 17

IV. Appendix 22
U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

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The Concerns of the Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

Page 1

Background

Because of the importance of the census to every state, every city and 

every person living in America, the Congressional Members of the Census 

Monitoring Board have made an effort to talk with, not only the Census 

Bureau, but stakeholders as well. Over the past year and a half, since the 

formal organizational meeting of the entire Board on 8 June 1998, the 

Congressional Members, in the face of resistance on the part of the 

Census Bureau 

to release 

operational 

details of 

Census 2000 

planning, 

sought the 

testimony and 

perspective of 

census 

stakeholders. 

These 

stakeholders, 

including state 

and local 

government 

officials and 

community 

residents from 

hard-to-count 

neighborhoods, 

are the 

partners on 

whom the 

Census Bureau 

will rely to 

count the 

nation’s streets 

and houses. 

Listening to the Hard-to-Count 

Neighborhoods

A PROFILE OF THE HARD-TO-COUNT: COLONIAS

The official definition of the colonia, “a residential subdivision 

lacking essential facilities such as water and wastewater 

services and paved roads,” only begins to describe life in a 

colonia. 

Colonias are found in the states along the US-Mexican border—

Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. Most of the US 

colonias are in Texas—over 1200 colonias and approximately 

300,000 residents. Almost 90 percent of the colonias in Texas 

are located in Hidalgo, El Paso, Starr, Cameron, Maverick, 

Webb and Zavala counties—251,032 persons who are 90 

percent Hispanic and often recent immigrants. 

Cameron Park, one of the oldest colonias and featured on 

national news programs, has become a “model” colonia. Due to 

the advocacy of the community, the roads in Cameron Park are 

paved, water is available and there are services available in the 

colonia. In fact, within the maze of streets there is a community 

health center, several businesses and a community center. 

Yet, Cameron Park is not illustrative of the main. Most colonias 

are like Del Mar Heights, La Paloma, Blanca Juarez, Sunny 

Side, Huecho, Montana Vista, Rio Bravo and Basham 23. The 

residents of these colonias are geographically, culturally and 

linguistically isolated and struggle to obtain water for their daily 

needs and to even travel beyond the colonia. 

These colonias are pockets of densely populated, linguistically 

isolated communities that presented difficulties during the 1990 

census and will continue to challenge the Census Bureau in 

2000. 
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

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Their experiences working singularly and in cooperation with the 

Census Bureau are an integral part of the record for Census 2000.

The Monitoring Board has created a series of opportunities—forums, 

“listening tours,” and hearings—for this express purpose. 

Listening Tours

The nation’s hard-to-count neighborhoods are the foundation of the 

differential undercount—hundreds of thousands of people living in lowincome, urban, rural and minority communities missed in the census. 

Their neighborhoods, approximately 2,700 tracts out of the 62,000 

tracts nationwide, should be the focus of the Census Bureau’s 

efforts to reduce the differential undercount. 

The Congressional Members of the Board have made an effort to solicit 

the opinions, testimonies, and guidance of real persons living in 

hard-to-count neighborhoods. These “listening tours” have taken place 

in Robert Taylor Homes, the nation’s largest single housing project in 

Chicago; in the Delta and other rural areas of Mississippi; and in several 

Latino neighborhoods in Houston, including Magnolia Park. In addition, 

we directed staff research in other areas, including colonias in South 

Texas and a native village in Alaska.

The guiding principle of our investigation in the hard-to-count 

neighborhoods is the belief that as the leaders and residents of these 

neighborhoods, they know more about their community and, as a result, 

know better how to ensure people are counted in Census 2000. 

Therefore, the purpose of these Listening Tours was to gain an “on-theground” perspective regarding the barriers that will hamper the Census 

Bureau in 2000 in these hard-to-count communities and neighborhoods. 

And, more importantly, to discover what specific strategies should be 

used and what the Census Bureau must do to confront these barriers 

and to reduce the differential undercount. 

By improving the count at the neighborhood level where the undercount 

occurs, in every building and housing unit—at 4410 S. State Street in 

Chicago, at Baldwin Street and Edna Avenue in Isola, Mississippi, and at 

3800 Lovejoy in Houston—the Census Bureau can reduce the differential 

undercount. However, in order to do so, the Census Bureau must amend 

current practices and allow for flexibility at the local level. Only through 
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

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innovation and flexibility at the local level will the Bureau be able to 

count, in these hard-to-count neighborhoods, where real people are 

living and where the differential undercount occurs. 

The Undercount Summit

Based on the recommendations and the discussions the Board had 

throughout the country in hard-to-count neighborhoods, the Congressional 

Members of the Census Monitoring Board created a forum for real 

people, members of hard-to-count communities, to share their 

knowledge and their solutions for Census 2000. This forum was called 

the Undercount Summit, and was held in Washington, DC, on October 

29th 1999. The Summit brought people and voices, as yet unheard, 

together to share their expertise on ways to improve Census 2000. 

The participants represented a wide-range of hard-to-count 

communities—inner city neighborhoods, reservations and remote rural 

areas. The representatives included residents, educators, labor unions, 

social service organizations, community activists, and government. The 

Congressional Members believe that the participants’ statements and their 

expertise represent the best hope for ensuring a more accurate count for 

Census 2000.

Throughout the Undercount Summit, participants identified barriers and 

concerns. They also offered solutions for their communities that could be 

implemented right now to reduce the differential undercount of lowincome, urban, rural and minority communities. 

The Undercount Summit was organized into three panels

• Isolated Communities: Language, Fear and Confidentiality in Hardto-Count Neighborhoods

• How to Count in Hard-to-Count Neighborhoods

• Partnership: Expectations and Realities

The panelists of Isolated Communities discussed the elements of 

reluctance and the reasons why people are unwilling to respond to the 

census. This panel brought together several residents of hard-to-count 

communities and several representatives of organizations with crucial 

roles in those communities, including a school principal. More importantly, 
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

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the panelists discussed linguistic isolation and apprehension in their own 

words. This panel created an inventory of barriers and concerns that the 

other panels discussed and then presented innovations and solutions to 

confront those barriers and concerns. 

The panelists of How to Count in Hard-to-Count Neighborhoods illustrated 

the ability of local communities, if involved in the census, to provide 

resources that would help ensure an accurate census. The panelists 

represented a range of expertise—from a newspaper publisher to a 

Complete Count Committee chairperson, from a former director for the 

Salvation Army with expertise on the homeless in Cleveland, Ohio to the 

president of an organization that provides support to recent immigrants in 

the Washington, DC metropolitan area. The resources, including 

volunteer positions known as facilitators, were “home-grown” to fit the 

needs of a particular city, neighborhood or street.

Finally, the Partnership panel illustrated the way in which the Census 

Bureau could use the concern and willingness of state and local 

governments to create solutions for their hard-to-count neighborhoods. 

Despite many of the panelists being unfamiliar with the other panelists and 

the other communities, one theme emerged: the Census Bureau must 

do more in hard-to-count neighborhoods, current strategies are not 

enough.

The Hispanic Federation Forum

In addition to the listening tours and to the Undercount Summit, the 

Congressional Members of the Board participated in a forum organized by 

the Presidential Members of the Census Monitoring Board and the 

Hispanic Federation on November 10th 1999 in New York City. 

The Hispanic Federation, an organization of Latino health and human 

services agencies serving the metropolitan New York City area, created 

this forum “to discuss strategies to ensure that every New Yorker is 

counted in the 2000 census.” According to the president, missed children 

in the 1990 census were the inspiration for the Federation: “That is why 

the Hispanic Federation has taken a leadership role in promoting an 

accurate census.”
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

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The participants of the Forum represented a wide range of services and 

agencies—including City Council members, the Catholic Charities of the 

Archdiocese of New York City, ALIANZA, and civil rights organizations. 

The comments and concerns of these participants, while focused on 

primarily Latino and Asian immigrant neighborhoods in the dense urban 

environment of New York City, were consistent with those presented at 

the Undercount Summit. These concerns reflected the need for the 

Census Bureau to do more in hard-to-count neighborhoods. 
The Concerns of the Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

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Summary

This document, using the words of the participants of the Undercount Summit 

and the Hispanic Federation, briefly summarizes the barriers, concerns and 

solutions the participants have shared with the Census Monitoring Board.

This summary is organized into three discussions: Barriers, Concerns, and 

Solutions. “Barriers” provides a sense of what keeps people from answering a 

census questionnaire and what those reasons may be. “Concerns” illustrates 

the actual link between the barrier and the census forms that will not be 

completed in hard-to-count neighborhoods and “Solutions” presents some of 

the innovative and common sense methods states, cities and organizations 

will use to encourage participation in Census 2000.

Barriers

The first panel of the Undercount Summit, Isolated Communities: Language, 

Fear and Confidentiality, was a discussion of the basic elements of reluctance 

regarding the census: fear and isolation. People living in neighborhoods 

with little or no positive contact with government are highly suspicious 

of sharing “private” information with anyone from the government and 

actually fear what might become of their information and themselves if 

they answer the census questionnaire. Participants at the Summit and the 

Hispanic Federation Forum indicated that people just do not trust that their 

information will not be shared with another government agency—such as 

Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Immigration and Naturalization 

Service (INS), and other agencies. Isolation, including linguistic isolation, 

alienates residents from the message of the census’ importance.

As the Summit and Forum participants consistently identified fear, mistrust and 

isolation as the leading barriers in hard-to-count neighborhoods, the lack of a 

strategy meeting these barriers was also pointed out. These barriers will 

directly affect the success of the Census 2000 questionnaire response and 

non-response follow-up efforts.

The Concerns of the Hard-to-Count 

Communities
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

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Fear and Mistrust

Often in hard-to-count communities, any efforts by the government are viewed 

with suspicion and directly affect the level of cooperation the Census Bureau 

may receive in Census 2000.

Undercount Summit

• “In Indian country there’s a vast number of reasons, particularly the primary 

reason is that the government has made many promises to my people and 

broken every one of them. That’s reason enough for any human being to 

distrust any federal agent.”

Chairman Apesanahkwat, Tribal Leader, Menominee Reservation, WI

• “Some of our basic fears are the unknowns of where the information is 

going to go...who all will receive various aspects of it...”

Shahshak Levi-Nawls, Resident and Community Activist, Robert 

Taylor Homes, Chicago, IL

• “... if INS is walking behind, or in front of, any of your census takers, those 

immigrants who may be here legally or illegally are gone. ... And I have 

had past experiences with INS walking in the door immediately after an 

enumerator and that’s the end of counting anything.”

The Honorable Carol Roberts, Commissioner, Palm Beach County, FL

Hispanic Federation Forum

• “I cannot stress enough to the Census Monitoring Board today how 

important it is to diffuse this fear by getting across a clear message of 

confidentiality. This obviously won’t solve all of our undercount problems in 

New York, but it will make a difference.”

Herbert Berman, Council Member, New York, NY

• “There is a big distrust of big government, and that being rightly so with the 

immigrant community.”

“Again, just the fear is enormous when we talk about people knocking on 

doors or receiving forms which they have to submit.... I think the important 
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U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

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message is, and what I would like to bring here, is that it is important to 

reach out to our organizations, who hold the trust in the community.”

Michael Amezquita, Executive Director, Northern Manhattan Coalition for 

Immigration Rights, New York, NY

• “...all the outreach doesn’t overcome those other barriers. I think that this 

is particularly true for the immigrant population. You can stand on your 

head and tell people that it is safe, and frankly, you [Census Bureau] can’t 

tell people that it is safe, which is the whole reason for inaccurate counting, 

so that we can finally break away from a lot of the problems and counteract 

that particular issue.”

Margie McHugh, Executive Director, New York Immigrant Coalition

Isolation 

Isolation, whether geographic, cultural, or linguistic, reduces the ability and 

willingness of hard-to-count communities to participate in Census 2000.

Undercount Summit

• “Colonias residents face geographic, social and economic isolation 

aggravated by illiteracy and a limited understanding of the workings of the 

larger community.”

Larry Rincones, Regional Director, Texas A & M Colonias Program

• “Street and building lights are turned off sometimes by gang members. 

When the elevators do not work, you could conceivably walk up 16 flights 

of dark dirty stairs...Given these conditions, who wouldn’t experience fear, 

isolation and despair. Given its reputation, census takers may even 

experience doubt about entering these building to count the number of 

family members...”

Gwendolyn Long, Principal, Farren Fine Arts Elementary School, Chicago, 

IL

Hispanic Federation Forum

• “The largest influence and the biggest problem affecting this community 

happens to be limited English proficiency.”

The Honorable Roberto Ramirez, Assembly Member, New York, NY
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Concerns

Most of the concerns expressed during the Undercount Summit and the 

Hispanic Federation Forum were directly related to the barriers of fear and 

isolation. These concerns, as they were defined and discussed throughout all 

of the panels, illustrate the need for the Census Bureau to re-evaluate their 

current strategies and to acknowledge the barriers of hard-to-count 

communities. 

Many of these concerns took the form of recommendations that the Census 

Bureau should consider.

Enumerators

The enumerators are the Census Bureau’s infantry units. An enumerator is 

the individual responsible for knocking on the door of a house and completing 

the census questionnaire for a household that did not return the census 

questionnaire. 

Cultural sensitivity—an enumerator that looks and sounds like the people on 

the other side of the door—is one of the most basic requirements in hard-tocount communities. Without cultural sensitivity, the enumerators are unlikely 

to be able to complete their task.

Undercount Summit

• “No one is going to convince Indians that they should be counted except 

Indians.”

“I have an eighth grade education myself personally. My people have, on 

average, less than the eighth grade. But we have always known how 

many Indians were on that reservation...If you want to know how many 

Indians are there, we can tell you. You don’t need no degree to do that.”

Chairman Apesanahkwat 

• “I believe that there is not enough emphasis being placed on are we 

matching up the right enumerator for the areas that we need to, especially 

focusing on the hard-to-count.... So you can’t just overlook the fact that 

who you’re going to have knock on the door has to be somebody that looks 
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

Page 10

like the person that’s living there. And speak the language. If you don’t 

even have that as a capability, it’s not going to work.”

Ana Sol Gutierrez, President, Casa de Maryland, Inc., Silver Spring, MD

• “They may not be the people that you socialize with every day but those 

folks need to be the enumerators, the folks that know these people on the 

street by their first names and have already developed a sense of trust.”

Bill Bowen, former Director, Salvation Army, Cleveland, OH

• “We are not going to entrust our private lives to strangers. Therefore, 

strangers will not be allowed to come into Robert Taylor Homes.”

Tyrone Galtney, Resident and Community Activist, Robert Taylor Homes, 

Chicago, IL

• “Just for a point of reference, the FBI has a two-year removal of their 

qualifications for those who are fluent in Spanish. If the FBI can do it, this 

panel can give some consideration.”

Bud McTaggart, Executive Assistant, AFL-CIO Cleveland, OH

Hispanic Federation Forum

• “This leads to another major issue that we wanted to address, which is the 

issue of hiring bilingual personnel. The Census Bureau has come out with 

a citizenship neutral policy. Guess what? If you are not on the 51 Allied 

nation list, you are going to have a problem getting hired.... It excludes 

India, China, Taiwan and a lot of the bilingual personnel. That is 

something that we really need to get the Census Bureau to really [be] 

aggressively hiring bilingual people in our community.”

Margaret Chin, Executive Director, Asian Americans for Equality, New York, 

NY

• “My big worry is that we don’t really have a plan.... So, it seems to me now 

that we are still in the very broad brush strokes where we are talking about 

how diverse the population is, and about where the target neighborhoods

are, but we are still not really talking about down at the deepest community 

levels about how we are actually going to get people in those areas.”

Margie McHugh
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

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INS and Enforcement Actions

Certain enforcement actions, considered punitive, have a chilling effect on 

census cooperation because they disrupt and create a wave of fear 

throughout the community.

Undercount Summit

• “Because of the negative impact that INS enforcement activities will have 

on the trust of immigrant communities during the Census 2000 and to 

ensure a fair and open participation in the census, we strongly urge you to 

recommend the suspension of INS enforcement activities for the year 2000

to ensure that immigrant communities feel safe talking to the government 

representative during the entire census process.”

Benito Juarez, Coordinator, Houston Immigration and Refugee Coalition, 

Houston, TX

• “We have to remove all the ideas or concepts of punitive action being taken 

no matter whether it’s the INS or a landlord or a housing authority or the 

police or anyone.”

Bill Bowen 

Hispanic Federation Forum

• “Also the issue of addressing their concerns about the INS. I was recently 

among the Regional Council for Immigrant Head Start. That was a big 

concern of that population, that they do not trust the INS and what is going 

to happen with the information that they get from the parents. They would 

be willing to be third parties if they knew we addressed those concerns, 

that they would not be in some way helping the INS.”

Elba Montalvo, Executive Director, Hispanic Committee on Children and 

Families
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U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

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Adequate Materials for Hard-to-Count Areas,

Especially in Spanish

Inadequate or unavailable materials make cooperation and partnership with 

the Census Bureau difficult. Specifically, for hard-to-count neighborhoods, 

materials for schools and language specific materials are important in Census 

2000.

Undercount Summit

• “Make sure the regional centers distribute the literature in a timely fashion 

to all schools including those of us who have known an undercount in 

previous years.”

Gwendolyn Long

• “A lack of census fact sheets and promotional materials needed by 

partnership specialists for outreach education efforts. A lack of census fact 

sheets in other languages, especially Spanish, that are needed in the 

community.”

Anna Núñez, Census 2000 Coordinator, City of Houston, TX

Hispanic Federation Forum

• “In the 1990 census, over 64 percent of the Asian population stated that 

they do not speak English proficiently, so that is almost two thirds of the 

population. The Asian population is growing, and as the new population is 

adding, for example in the different communities, they definitely need 

information in their language.”

“One of the things that we have also been pushing on is that the 

government is spending all this money on this national advertising 

campaign. When we first saw the trailer, we questioned how come the 

language program was not even mentioned in this huge advertising 

campaign that is going to reach all the sectors. The are going to do it in all 

languages, and I saw this piece in Chinese, but there was no mention 

about there is going to be Chinese assistance available by the 

questionnaires or in the information...”
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

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“I mentioned before you should be getting bilingual information. Voter 

guides that will be coming to all the households and are in Spanish and in 

English. There is a paragraph, if you want Chinese, you can call in for it. 

Also like the information when you register to vote, the Board of Elections 

now sends out stuff in three languages.”

Margaret Chin

The Lack of Spanish Language Questionnaire

Not sending a Spanish-language questionnaire to the neighborhoods that are 

exclusively Spanish speaking was consistently cited as a major impediment for 

these communities.

Undercount Summit

• “We believe that instead of sending this form in English to Spanish 

speakers, they should send a form in Spanish. So in that way people will 

be able to understand better what it is about and feel more confident in 

filling out and participating in the census”

Benito Juarez

• “A lack of census forms in Spanish. This is especially critical. Many 

people are unaware of the fact that in order to receive a census 

questionnaire in Spanish, they must first respond to a letter [in English] that 

will be mailed to them, to their home in March. If they do not respond to 

this form, they will not receive a census questionnaire in Spanish.”

“I would, again, respectfully request of whoever can affect change if the 

recognition was done in 1992 as to the specific challenge affecting the 

Latino community that, again, the inclusion of additional forms in Spanish is 

very critical for an accurate count.”

Anna Núñez

Hispanic Federation Forum

• “But the problem is how are you going to get a hold of that questionnaire? 

When we first pushed for it with the advisory committee, we thought well 

technically, they took the form and mailed it to the Asians here in New York 

City. We get the voter’s guide in English and Spanish, and if you want a 
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

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Chinese one, there is a phone number you can call? Guess what? 

Technically, it could be done. After all the discussion and everything, it 

came down to the pre-Census letter.... Because in order to do it [obtain a 

Spanish questionnaire], they have got turn the English letter over to the 

back and find their languages and make a check mark and send it back.”

“The request form, it is sent out in English. One of the things that we 

presented and that I suggested, minimally is to have something on the 

envelope that could alert people that there is something in there that is in 

their own language.”

Margaret Chin

• “The fact is you can’t get it right, because somebody is going to think it is 

wrong. But the paralysis is not to do anything. Give it a try and bear some 

of the heat for doing it. We deal with this all time when we send out things 

bilingually. Somebody gets offended, but you can’t get it 100 percent right. 

You just have to do as much as you can. Most people understand that we 

live in a multicultural town, a multicultural country, and they are not 

offended. So just as much saturation as possible. More in this is better. 

We come into this problem all the time, where we learn that one of our 

parishes now has added a service in another language, and we didn’t send 

them that because on our previous list, it wasn’t there. Each weekend, 

mass is celebrated in 50 different languages in our parishes. It is never 

four or five. It is 50 different languages. You can’t get it 100 percent right, 

but more is better in this situation.”

Father Kevin Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer, The Catholic Charities of the 

Archdiocese of New York City
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U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

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Remove Barriers to Hiring 

Hiring tests, application forms, and English proficiency exams may have the 

effect of screening out the very members of the American family who should 

be hired to count their 

communities in Census 

2000. 

Undercount Summit

• “If you have to take 

the enumerators test 

or application and 

throw it out the 

window, that’s what 

you’re going to have 

to do. And you’re 

going to have to do 

that with a lot of these 

populations. Perhaps 

the enumerator that 

you need the most is 

the one who can’t 

read the application 

for the enumerator 

test.”

Bill Bowen

• “Not only do you have 

to pass that test in 

Spanish, you have to 

be able to pass an 

English proficiency 

test because the 

training is done in 

English, not in 

Spanish even though 

these persons would 

be required to work in 

Spanish dominant 

areas.”

A Profile of the Hard-to-Count: Robert Taylor 

Homes

At the end of the “State Street Corridor” in Chicago—

four miles of densely populated low-income, majority 

African-American, public housing, stands Robert 

Taylor Homes. Built between 1959 and 1961, Robert 

Taylor Homes is the nation’s largest housing project. 

At it’s peak occupancy in 1964, there were 26,946 

authorized residents living in the 28 sixteen story 

buildings and 4300 housing units. 

According to the Chicago Housing Authority, of the 

7689 current residents of Robert Taylor Homes 99.9 

percent are African-American and 84 percent earn less 

than $10,000 a year. 

Robert Taylor Homes presents several challenges for 

Census 2000. The Census Bureau must employ 

enough enumerators who are willing to physically do 

the work and who understand the culture of the 

residents living in Robert Taylor Homes. In the 

extreme case, an enumerator must be willing to enter 

a gang-controlled apartment building and climb sixteen 

darkened flights of stairs to knock on a door to talk with 

a person, who is suspicious of the government and is 

living with unauthorized residents, and get them to 

answer the census questionnaire. Additionally, the 

Census Bureau must find reliable partners who can 

explain confidentiality and the purpose of the census to 

the residents of Robert Taylor.

Robert Taylor Homes was severely undercounted in 

the 1990 census. In 1990, the census count in the 

census tracts comprising Robert Taylor Homes 

indicated 8787 persons. The adjusted census would 

have only added 673 persons to that count. Yet, the 

Chicago Housing Authority’s Statistical Profile for 1991 

estimated a population of 12,320 in Robert Taylor 

Homes—3500 more persons that the census count. 

The census and the adjustment both reflect a 

substantial undercount in the Robert Taylor Homes 

community. 
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

Page 16

Anna Núñez

• “So I believe that you need to alter the test not only for minorities, not only 

for perhaps those who have a problem with the reading and the writing, but 

I think you need to alter the test and not make it a barrier, but make it 

rather something that allows people to participate.”

The Honorable Carol Roberts

Welfare Waiver

Granting a “waiver,” an “exclusion” or an “exemption” for earnings derived from 

temporary census employment is important for hard-to-count neighborhoods.

Undercount Summit

• “We need to say to the government to make sure that one of our 

enumerators are our welfare recipients from the housing project that there 

is a waiver that is given so that they are not penalized for this short-term 

job that they’re doing for the benefit of the country.”

Gwendolyn Long

• “It’s paramount to getting facilitators and enumerators, and that is in order 

to facilitate neighborhood hiring, income derived from being census takers 

should not be counted towards the ceilings for Food Stamps, public 

housing, and other social services. If it does, you eliminate a great source 

of accomplishing this.”

Bud McTaggart
The Concerns of the Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

Page 17

Solutions

Addressing the difficulties in hard-to-count neighborhoods includes both 

“home-grown” strategies and cooperation with the Bureau. These 

strategies, discussed during the How to Count in Hard-to-Count 

Neighborhoods and Partnership panels at the Undercount Summit and 

throughout the Hispanic Federation Forum, focus on outreach and 

ensuring that enumerators have access to the help they need. 

These solutions reflect local challenges and, more importantly, the local 

resources that can be made available to the Census Bureau. They range 

from using the standard Bureau partnership opportunities to really doing 

something unique such as creating census facilitators to help the 

enumerators. Some of these solutions suggest that there are a lot of 

resources that are being neglected and some areas that could be used 

more. For instance, schools can do more than just presenting “Census in 

the Schools” curriculum. They are important members of the community 

that often have a daily relationship with parents in hard-to-count 

neighborhoods, not only the children. Therefore, one solution is to expand 

the schools partnerships. 

There are a lot of solutions. The participants in the Summit and the Forum 

only presented a few. There are solutions in every state, city, 

neighborhood and community that will work. Moreover, these are solutions 

that can be implemented right now to reduce the differential undercount.

Undercount Summit

• “We at the schools, both public and private, from kindergarten to 

graduate school can serve as a point to reach hard-to-reach areas and 

populations. This is especially true serving, as we well know, in every 

community of Hispanic, immigrant and African American and other 

minority populations. Certainly we can all agree around this table that 

it serves the nation’s best interest to recruit schools in this endeavor. I 

Opportunities to Reduce the Differential 

Undercount
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

Page 18

gather from my discussions around the table with many of you that has 

yet to take place.”

Jaime de la Isla, Assistant Superintendent, Houston Independent 

School District, Houston, TX

• “What we need to do is partnership with the human service community 

action agencies where people are familiar with dealing with people. 

They have caseworkers there. They have people that on a day-to-day 

basis they have contact with.”

The Honorable Jimmie Smith, Supervisor, Lauderdale County, MS

• “The city will be using its libraries, multi-service centers and health 

clinics as questionnaire assistance centers. We will be using our 

personnel in these facilities to help and assist people with the 

questionnaires. The city will house the city census task force in a suite 

upstairs in City Hall. We’ll have our own office. We’ll have our own 

hotline.”

Johnny Soto, Chief of Staff for John Castillo (District I), Houston City 

Council, Houston, TX

• “Special populations require special efforts by the Census Bureau and 

New York is assisting by identifying the location of all facilities licensed 

by state agencies as community-based facilities, group quarters, or 

other institutional facilities.”

“To improve communication, New York is developing partnerships with 

county, regional and local governments, businesses, the media and 

many not-for-profits. Promotional materials, artwork and text is being 

made available electronically to spread the message to every part of 

the state by various methods. We have our own Census 2000 New 

York web site.”

“New York City Census 2000 is working with business improvement 

districts for the first time across the city publicize the census message. 

In addition, the City’s plan encourages residential buildings, both large 

and small, throughout the city to assign building captains. The 

captains will evaluate census awareness by having volunteers knock 

on each door on April 1st, 2000 to stimulate the completion of 

questionnaires from all residents...”

Leslie Maeby, Director, New York State Complete Count Committee, 

Albany, NY
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

Page 19

• “Hold census forums at school sites which we are going to do at 

Farren. Hold mock census enumerations. Employ parents who work 

at the school who live in the housing development as the census 

takers. Set up sites in the school where residents may give the census 

information versus having strangers come to the apartments.”

Gwendolyn Long

• “Client databases. Every social service agency has one. Yes, there’s 

confidentiality. But they can take you to the house or they can take 

you to the client or they can encourage the client either by telephone or 

by mail to come in to a satellite location to fill out the form.”

Bill Bowen

• “[This program] would also establish a volunteer position known as a 

facilitator and this person will be a trusted and respected individual of 

good moral character and will hold the ability to provide a comfort zone 

between the enumerator and the resident....He or she would 

understand that his time is voluntary and that he would be called on 

only when enumerators are lost or having difficulty penetrating a 

home.”

Lethreanna Gatewood, Chair, Little Rock Missionary Baptist Complete 

Count Committee, Gulfport, MS

• We think our existing promotoras program could encourage colonia 

residents to believe it is safe for them to participate in Census 2000. 

Promotoras could encourage them to see that it is important for them 

to participate. They could accompany enumerators on home visits 

where it appears there is a reluctance to talk with people unknown to 

the residents. We can assist Census 2000 in identifying dependable 

colonia residents who could serve as enumerators in those 

communities. We believe our existing staff could also help reduce the 

undercount by mobilizing other outreach programs who we know well 

to assist enumerators in isolated communities where we do not have a 

presence ourselves.”

“Finally we believe we could also hire colonia residents and create

team to work with Census 2000 in colonias where no outreach 

programs now exist.”

Larry Rincones, Regional Director, Texas A&M Promotoras Program, 

Weslaco, TX
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

Page 20

• “Somehow I think there has to be a requirement, a minimum standard 

requirement of clear evidence of plans being in place that focuses on 

the hard-to-enumerate as a minimal focus and have the expectation of 

all local entities.”

Ana Sol Gutierrez

Hispanic Federation Forum

• “Why not punctuate our ‘Constituent Cause’ in our newsletters with a 

reminder of the importance of the census, and a promise of 

confidentiality is implicit. As, needed, seniors with census questions 

could be referred to appropriate federal help lines or helped by our own 

constituent services.”

“We must also get the Census message into our classrooms. I know 

that Census 2000 in partnership with Scholastic heads, has some 

wonderful free curriculum material available to kindergarten through 

twelfth grade teachers, tailored for specific grades. I just want to 

remind everybody that 20 years ago, my children pestered me 

because of what they learned in school, and caused me to stop 

smoking. It they could do that, they can get their parents to respond to 

the Census application. We must tell teachers now that this wonderful 

resource is available to them and will be available.”

The Honorable Herbert Berman

• “One of things we that we are trying to do in our organization is that we 

are committed to use our own office as a Census question assistance 

center so that our client, who knows us, will be able to come in and feel 

comfortable about filling out the form and getting help.”

Margaret Chin, Asian Americans for Equality

• “One, one of the unique things that we bring as Catholic Charities of 

the Arch Diocese of New York and in general as the religious 

community is that we have what is referred to secularly as branch 

offices or as others call them, parishes located in every one of the 

communities of New York City.... You have a ready made network of 

what can would conceivably be community assistance centers....They 

are already staffed, for the most part. Not perfect, by people who 

speak the languages of those communities because they have to do it 

on a day to day basis.”
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

Page 21

“The other thing which I will stress over and over again is the question 

of confidentiality. Hard to reach populations just don’t believe you. It is 

that simple.... That is why there is the need for those trusted third 

parties to become involved in that.”

Father Kevin Sullivan

• “In using third parties like that, I think that is a very useful way of 

getting people to speak up.”

Elba Montalvo
The Concerns of the Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

Page 22

Appendix
The Concerns of Hard-to-Count Communities

U.S. Census Monitoring Board, Congressional Members

Page 23