Oxnard’s ‘Windfall’
A windfall is defined as “an unexpected or undeserved stroke of good fortune.” The Times unfortunately chose the word “windfall” to describe the potential increase in state and federal funding that the city of Oxnard may receive due to the preliminary population count released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
As noted correctly by The Times, the preliminary count shows Oxnard with a population of 137,468--significantly higher than the State Department of Finance estimate of 129,980. However, this preliminary figure is neither unexpected nor undeserved. We have long maintained that Oxnard’s population was severely undercounted in the 1980 census and, as a result, tax dollars that have been paid by Oxnard residents over the years have been flowing from our large, ethnically diverse, lower-income residents to other cities that have wealthier, easier-to-count communities.
The correction of such an inequity can in no way be considered a “windfall,” any more than the return of stolen property to its rightful owner would be a windfall for the victim of a theft.
The city of Oxnard funded an aggressive program to reach out to our homeless, minority and non-English-speaking populations to encourage participation in the census, a program that still continues.
It must be emphasized that the figures are preliminary, and that the census is not over yet. We are presently reviewing the housing-unit figures provided by the Census Bureau, and will be presenting to the bureau a response reflecting some concerns we have with their preliminary figures. For example, the figures from the Census Bureau assert that nearly 25% of the housing units in the Oxnard Shores area are vacant, and that more than 11% of the units in the city of Port Hueneme are vacant. We have questions about these figures, as well as concerns that all of the hundreds of doubled-up families (whose addresses we provided to the Census Bureau) be included in the final census count.
If you or anyone you know hasn’t been counted, call us at 984-4609, or the Census Bureau at 1-800-999-1990 (English) or 1-800-CUENTAN (Spanish) to make sure you are included.
KARL LAWSON
Coordinator, Oxnard/Port Hueneme
Census Outreach Program
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