Was Queens Undercounted In 2000 Census Tally?

Census 2000 has the states population growth at about 5.5 percent between 1990 and 2000, to 18,976,457 people (2,000,649 in Queens), a number seemingly not good enough to overcome gains in the South and West. With the reapportionment of the 435 members of the House among the 50 states to reflect the new demographics, New Yorks delegation will shrink from 31 seats to 29, the fewest seats of representation the state has seen since 1810, when it had 27.
In October, 1999, The Queens Courier spoke with a veteran field representative working as an enumerators staff crew leader who warned that undercounting was a direct result of the Census bureaus failure to hire competent employees. The field representative, who wished to remain anonymous, charged that some Census employees forge signatures on employee evaluation forms. He also said that many employees that are trusted to conduct surveys are lazy and in some cases do not search out the illegal apartments and illegal citizens.
"There is a lot of cutting corners within the department," the crew leader said of employees he had allegedly seen filling out a survey without even contacting a household. "Some of [the field staff] are encouraged to break and bend rules to get results."
Now that the results are in, the field veteran says New York is paying for the carelessness of these employees and the failure of the U.S Census Bureau to assign adequate training and seasoned professionals to the task of compiling statistics vital to its residents.
"These results are what I feared would come of [Census 2000]," he said. "Now we will lose a needed portion of our share of federal funding and the size and clout of our political representation."
The council member said that the present method of counting the populationdoor to door enumerationhas consistently undercounted people of color and the rural poor.
The results come on the heels of U.S. Bureau of the Census Director Kenneth Prewitts plans to increase efficiency in the count nationwide. Prewitt had to address the undercount problem which occurred throughout New York City and especially in Queens in 1990, where the Census failed to count a large number of minorities and children.
According to officials, a total of 110,000 Hispanics, 185,000 African- Americans, and 2,000 Pacific Islanders failed to be counted in New York Citys 1990 Census. This includes 77,000 children, which is enough to fill 150 average sized high schools.
In Queens, 40,000 residents, most of whom are children, were completely uncounted during the 1990 census, officials said.
New York City lost over $415 million in Federal funds due to the 1990 count, which affected its childrens education the most.
Community based programs such as English as a Second Language and Special Education rely on the census count because it is used to determine how Federal funds for such programs are distributed. Therefore the need for accurate representation has become dire for the needs of our education programs. The Queens Census representative went so far as to say that an individual has more say when filling out a Census form than voting in the Presidential election.
"When you fill out a [Census] form, your participation becomes vital in representing the area in which you live…it determines the size of federal induced programs and institutions which will serve your community," he said. "In the Census your voice counts, which proves to be more effective than obtaining a voice in voting for our next president."
Carrion agrees that this situation needs to be rectified before the 2010 recount. "We must work for the balance of this decade to ensure that our counting methodology is brought into the 21st century," said Carrion. "Housing, education and health care are just three matters of justice and fairness that hang in the balance."