Census Bureau Urges Californians to Be Counted

By SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON

Jan. 8, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

As the U.S. Census Bureau kicked off its California campaign Friday with parades, receptions and speeches, Compton participant Yvette Freeman voiced the agency’s most daunting task: “I have to figure out what this is, first.”

Twelve days before the national decennial count begins in Alaska, anxiety is growing about getting the word out to the nation’s 120 million households. It is particularly difficult in diverse regions like Southern California, with large pockets of minorities and non-English speaking immigrant residents who fear or don’t trust the government.

Only three in five households are expected to respond to the mailed survey, which will be sent out to most U.S. residents in mid-March.

That’s troubling to California leaders, because the count is used to allocate public funds and reapportion the U.S. House of Representatives.

“We are at 84 days before the [local] count begins. This area had the largest number of people missed during the 1990 census,” Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante said Friday at the downtown Los Angeles census office open house. “We don’t want California to lose three, four, five billion dollars in resources again.”

Such dire predictions have led to the largest effort to date to increase awareness about the census. An unprecedented number of civic leaders, school districts and grass-roots organizations have banded together with government to boost participation.

Making people aware of the census is only half the battle, local leaders said. Many residents who hear about the head count are often reluctant to take part, fearing they’ll be deported, audited by the IRS or arrested. Some are reacting to wild rumors about what is actually asked on the form.

“Last week I even had a lady who called me demanding to know what business the government had asking about how many piercings she had in her ears,” said Leonard Lee, a census area manager who works in the regional headquarters in Van Nuys. “I told her we don’t ask that.”

In general, the questions deal with racial and ethnic makeup, age, and the number of people living in a household. Some will receive a longer form that includes questions about income, jobs, cars owned and mortgage amounts.

Federal laws guarantee that respondents are not identified for 72 years to anyone other than census workers, a mantra recited by government officials and community leaders at every turn. The anonymous data, however, become public record.

The census has been taken every 10 years without interruption since 1790. But the response rate has declined in recent surveys, down to two-thirds in 1990 and even lower for Los Angeles, where only 60% mailed back the forms.

“We will be telling everyone that being counted will mean money for schools, infrastructure and fair representation in Washington, Sacramento and City Hall as well,” said Michael N. Carpenter, the Van Nuys census office manager.

Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) urged that census takers be taught about the various cultures represented in the area and use that knowledge to get people to fill out census forms.

For example, he said, census takers should be aware that the Latino community is predominantly Roman Catholic and workers should not hesitate to draw on the New Testament story of Joseph and Mary’s journey to Bethlehem to take part in the census.

“It is a humble responsibility that must be taken just as seriously,” he said. In addition, the federal government has spent $167 million on a 17-language television, radio and print ad campaign launched in November. The state is spending another $8.7 million on its own ads.

Some community leaders worry that efforts to publicize the census are too late. As of Friday, no state money had yet been forwarded to the counties or school or grass-roots groups, all tasked with boosting participation.

“It’s great that the state has come up with $25 million to spend on the census. But the greatest challenge is that it’s a slow process with layers of bureaucracy,” said Louisa Ollague, who heads the census effort for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Los Angeles.

Jorge Jackson, who directs the state’s Complete Count Committee, disagreed, saying that officials are on target with selecting organizations to help funnel the money to various groups. The last of the funding should be handed down by mid-February, he said.

The Census Bureau, meanwhile, this week launched a nationwide recruitment drive to hire hundreds of thousands of census takers to go door to door and count residents who fail to send back forms by the April 1 deadline.

“We anticipate having to knock on 46 million doors” to follow up, Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt said during an earlier news conference in Washington.

In Central and Southern California and Hawaii, 36,000 census takers will be hired this spring, said John Reeder, census region director.

The temporary jobs, which pay $11 to $14 an hour depending on the county, have already generated thousands of phone calls from applicants, a pool Reeder hopes to increase to 200,000 across the region.

One of those interested is Olrenda Fleming, who marched with her 4-year-old son, Tyvone, in the Compton census parade, watched by only a few bystanders. But Fleming said she probably wouldn’t open her door to a census taker. “You can’t trust everybody.”

Freeman, 35, who joined in the parade with a dozen other members of the Deuces Motorcycle Club, agreed. Even so, she was going to learn about the census so she could spread the word in Compton, a community where about half of the people answered the survey last time around. “It could help the black community.”

Times staff writers Karima A. Haynes and Edgar Sandoval contributed to this story.

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Census Contact Information

These are the Southern California U.S. Census offices that can address questions about the decennial count and census job openings:

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Commerce (323) 890-5846

Compton (310) 537-9896

Culver City (310) 253-9540

Culver City East (310) 815-4438

East Los Angeles/Monterey Park (323) 981-3960

Glendale/Burbank (818) 551-6720

Hollywood/Mid-Wilshire (213) 251-7080