WATCH: Mayor Steinberg & Cassandra Jennings celebrate Census Day 2020
Friends,
The U.S. Census is a once in a decade opportunity to ensure our community is accurately counted and that our state, county and city get our fair share of $675 billion in public funding to help with emergency services and response, community services, health clinics, transportation, Head Start and food programs, such as school breakfast and lunch programs, and Meals on Wheels.
The current crisis we are facing demonstrates just how important these resources are. We need a complete count to ensure our county has the healthcare resources it needs to protect our most vulnerable populations and to ensure our emergency services have the funding they need to meet the moment when crises arise. We need a complete count to ensure our schools and Food Banks have funding and support to provide meals and support to our families.
A Complete Count also impacts our ability to grow a modern economy. Economic development dollars, grants for transportation and major infrastructure projects all have funding ties to Census data. USDA grants for small farms and urban agriculture, as well as financing tools such as Opportunity Zones all have elements of Census data built into how they are structured.
Not only do we rely on a complete count for resources, we need a complete count to ensure that we have a strong voice in our nation’s capital. We have a strong congressional delegation advocating for our state, but if we do not have a complete count, we will lose seats and lose representation in Washington D.C..
Locally, Census data is essential for us to understand how to plan to best support our residents. It helps determine where school districts build new schools, or as we’ve seen in some unfortunate cases, where districts are forced to close down schools to the detriment of a neighborhood. We need this data to ensure we are making smart decisions with taxpayer dollars and that our city is in the best possible position to leverage state and federal resources to support our vision for a diverse and inclusive economy.
Filling out the Census is very easy! You should have received some mail that explains how to go online and fill it out, or call and do it over the phone. If you want a paper form, you can wait and those will arrive in a few weeks. Don’t put off filling out your census another day!
—Mayor Darrell Steinberg
