Census Revisions Ordered Released : Population: State Senate wins access to survey that increases count of minorities and homeless. U.S. officials plan to seek stay of order.

In an important victory for state lawmakers, a federal judge Wednesday ordered the U.S. government to release corrected census data that adds more than 1 million people to the count of California’s population.

If the judge’s decision is upheld, the new figures could have a major impact on the drawing of political boundaries in California and could increase the amount of financial aid available to the state.

“This is a red-letter day for California,” said attorney Allan Browne, who represented the state Senate in seeking the data. “One million Californians have been taken out of the Bermuda Triangle and can now be counted and represented.”

U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall, finding that California stood to “suffer great, immediate and irreparable injury,” ordered the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau to provide adjusted census data to the state Senate this morning.

It is the first time in the nation that a state has won the right to use the adjusted figures, said attorneys for both sides.

Assistant U.S. Atty. George Wu, who represents the Census Bureau, said he planned to file an emergency appeal seeking to stay the judge’s order.

The census traditionally has undercounted minorities, non-English speakers and transients. A new study released Wednesday, in fact, claims the census overlooked at least two-thirds of Los Angeles County’s homeless people.

But when a special survey last year showed that the census missed some 5 million people nationwide, Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher decided not to incorporate the new information. He said the higher figures were “inconclusive” and cautioned against abandoning a counting system used by the United States since 1790.

Browne and other critics have accused the Bush Administration of rejecting the data because it would likely enlarge the traditional Democratic voting bases of urban America.

While Wednesday’s ruling applies only to population figures for California, Browne predicted it would have broad implications for a number of other states that are fighting for a more accurate head count.

The 1990 Census estimated the state’s population at 29,760,021. The adjusted estimate is 30,888,000.

In Orange County, Santa Ana was first estimated to have 293,742 but the adjusted figure is 310,000--an increase of 5.2%. There was a 4.2% difference for Anaheim, where the population was thought to be 266,406 but the adjusted figure is 278,000. Fullerton’s population was originally estimated at 114,144, 2.4% less than the adjusted figure of 117,000.

The Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, argued that the adjusted data is merely based on statistical manipulation, and, as such, is not necessarily more exact.

“There is no evidence at this point that the adjusted census data is more accurate,” Wu said in an interview. “And, indeed, there is a dispute which would indicate that it is not as accurate as 1990 Census data.”

The state’s Democratic senators sought the adjusted figures, which came out of the Census Bureau’s Post Enumeration Survey, for use in redrawing boundaries for Assembly, Senate, congressional and Board of Equalization districts. Gov. Pete Wilson wants to see the plans by Sept. 3. The Assembly also is suing the Commerce Department to get the same information.

State Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who leads the effort, has said that twice as many minorities as whites were missed in the census.

While the larger population could mean more seats in the Assembly for some areas of the state, California would not receive an additional seat in the U.S. Congress unless all states used adjusted census data, Browne said.

If the census were adjusted nationwide, California and Arizona each would gain a seat in the House of Representatives, while Wisconsin and Pennsylvania would each lose one.

In another indication that the census is flawed, a homeless advocacy group released a survey Wednesday that purportedly shows a dramatic undercounting of transients in Los Angeles.

At least 36,800 and possibly as many as 59,100 people are homeless each night in Los Angeles County, according to data compiled by Shelter Partnership, a support organization for shelters and homeless programs. More than half of the homeless can be found within the city of Los Angeles, the study found.

Census Bureau figures released earlier this year estimated that there were 11,790 homeless people in Los Angeles County.

The Shelter Partnership study marks the first comprehensive effort in Los Angeles to use existing welfare statistics, combined with numbers gathered by a city homeless outreach program, to count the homeless, they said.

Homeless advocates said they hope to use the Shelter Partnership’s report to persuade federal agencies not to use the census figures as the basis for allocating funds for homeless programs.

Bob Vilmur, homeless projects coordinator for the city’s Community Development Department, said the study confirmed his belief on the number of homeless in Los Angeles.

“My gut feeling is that we still have more homeless within the city on any night than the study indicates,” said Vilmur. “But given an absence of any better data I’ll certainly go with what they’ve got.”

Staff writer Thuan Le contributed to this report from Orange County.