CENSUS TAKERS START VISITING TOMORROW

Census takers for the U.S. Census Bureau will start going door-to-door tomorrow and continue through July 10th. They'll visit you if you received a form and didn’t mail it back. Even if you did mail it back, it might have arrived too late to be processed, and you might be visited.

They'll also visit people who didn’t receive a form.

If someone comes to your door and tells you that they're a census worker, make sure that they're telling you the truth.

• They must show you their ID badge. The badge has a Department of Commerce watermark on it and an expiration date. They may also be carrying a black canvass bag with a Census Bureau logo.
• They must provide you with information about how to contact their supervisor and/or the phone number of the local census office, if you ask for it.
• They must ask you only the questions that appear on the census form.
• They must not ask you for your social security number, your bank account number, or your credit card number.
• They must not ask you for money.
• They must not contact you by e-mail.

Census workers are authorized to try to interview you up to six times. They can leave you three notices that they tried to visit you. They can then try three times to reach you by phone to either interview you by phone or schedule a visit.

If they aren't able to talk with you, they're allowed to talk to your neighbor, your rental agent, your building manager, or anyone else who knows your household in order to obtain as much basic information about you as they can.

All census takers have had an FBI background check that includes a name check and a fingerprint check. They took an oath for life that they'll protect the information they collect, and they were told that they can get fined up to $250,000, put in jail for up to five years, or suffer both penalties if they disclose any personally identifiable information about anyone they've interviewed.

By law, the Census Bureau can't share your answers with the IRS, the FBI, the CIA, or any other government agency.

The 2010 Census is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. Information is used to

• determine how many Congressional seats each state will get,
• distribute more than $400 billion in federal funds to state and local governments each year until the next census in 2020,
• and make decisions about which community services to provide.

More than 72% of households across the country have returned their census forms. In Kensington, the percentage of returns is only in the 50s and 60s. If people in our neighborhood don't participate in the census, we'll lose representatives in Congress and lose funding for services that we need, such as schools, roads, hospitals, and emergency services.

For more information about the census, please read these posts on the KARMA blog:
Be Counted in the Census, Lower Your Taxes--Mail Your Census Form, and You Probably Know by Now That the Census Is Here.

YOU PROBABLY KNOW BY NOW THAT THE CENSUS IS HERE

You probably know by now that the census is here. If you haven't completed and sent in your form, please take one minute to look at some statistics that we hope will change your mind....

*Windsor Terrace and Kensington have a response rate of only 51% - 70%, depending on where you live in our community. That means that 30% - 49% of the Federal funds that should be coming here to pay for our schools, police, roads, etc. will be sent elsewhere. Our communities lose $3,000 of potential funding each year, for ten years, for every person who doesn't return the form. If you have ever complained about any of these services, now is the time to take ten minutes to do your part.

*Total cost to taxpayers to follow up on people who have not responded is $1.5 billion. Every additional 1% of households who do respond now saves taxpayers $80 - $90 million in follow up costs.

*The form is short and easy. It really does take around ten minutes.

Questionnaire Assistance Centers offering free help filling out the forms:

• NPI Computer (401 Church Avenue at E. 4th Street)
• The Church of Gethsemane (1012 8th Avenue at 10th Street)
• Prospect Hills Senior Center (283 Prospect Avenue between 5th and 6th avenues)

Telephone assistance: 1- 866-872-6868

Brought to you by
Windsor Terrace Alliance, Inc.
Kensington Area Resident/Merchant Alliance (KARMA)
KWTneighbors
The PTA of PS 154 Brooklyn, Inc.

LOWER YOUR TAXES--MAIL YOUR CENSUS FORM

If you fill out your 2010 census form and mail it back to the Census Bureau, it only costs the government the price of a 42-cent stamp. But if you don't, it costs about $57 for a census taker to visit you and ask you questions in person. Where does the money come from to pay the census takers? From taxes!

To get as many people as possible to mail the form back, the Census Bureau began mailing second copies of the form last week to about 40 million households in areas with below-average response rates in the 2000 census.

In areas with a mail response rate of 59% or less in 2000, second copies were mailed to every household--even those that have already returned their census form.

In areas with a mail response rate between 59% and 67% in 2000, second copies will only be sent to households that haven't returned their form yet.

The forms will arrive between April 6th and 10th. If you don't mail back your form by mid-April, a census taker will appear at your door!

Let's get counted and get our fair share of political representation and federal funds from now until the next census in 2020!

Please also see our other blog post about the census.

BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS

It isn't too late to fill out your 2010 census form and encourage your neighbors to fill it out. The Census Bureau will accept the form by mail through the middle of April. Starting on May 1st and continuing through July, census workers will be ringing the doorbells of households that didn't mail back their forms. Fill out your form and send it to the Census Bureau so they don't ring your doorbell!

54% of the nation’s households have mailed back their census forms. But participation by Kensington residents ranges from the low 30s to the high 40s. You can check the 2010 census website to see how much participation there has been so far in our neighborhood.

Census data determines how many representatives we will have in the U.S. House of Representatives, how much federal funding we're entitled to (out of the more than $400 billion available), and the extent of community services we'll be provided with, such as

• hospitals and other healthcare,
• job training centers,
• public schools, education programs, and daycare services,
• housing assistance for elderly, handicapped, and low-income homeowners,
• senior centers,
• transportation infrastructure (roads, bridges, tunnels, and other public works projects), and
• emergency services.

We ourselves can use census data to point out the need for community initiatives concerning environmental legislation, quality-of-life issues, and consumer advocacy.

The 2010 Census form only has 10 questions that only take about 10 minutes to complete. Strict confidentiality laws protect the respondents and the information they provide. Please participate, and please encourage others to participate!