Queens residents who did not mail back their census form may well be hearing knocks at their doors over the next two months, as the U.S. Census Bureau goes from the mailbox to the streets in its effort to count every resident of the borough.
The bureau’s door-to-door campaign in New York and New Jersey began on Saturday, May 1, so residents may have already noticed satchel-carrying census takers walking through communities and speaking to neighbors. According to the bureau, these individuals will also be carrying an ID badge with the Census Bureau seal on it.
This campaign will be the bureau’s last attempt to gather information on Queens communities. The data that they gather will be used to make important decisions regarding federal funding and congressional representation for Queens, which are both based on total population of the borough. An accurate population count is therefore vital to ensuring the future prosperity of your community.
“If an enumerator knocks on your door, please cooperate with your neighbors, take 10 minutes or less out of your time by responding and help move your community forward,” said Lester A. Farthing, the U.S. Census Bureau’s New York regional director.
“It might be that there are some people in the community that may be cautious, but you should rest assured that the majority of census takers are from the neighborhood and are working, earning a living, and are doing a service that can help the community as long as they get the information that they need,” echoed Census Bureau spokesperson Yolanda Finley.
Census takers will ask 10 simple questions, which should take only a few minutes to answer. According to the bureau, residents will not be asked any questions regarding citizenship status, Social Security numbers, or financial information.
The Census Bureau is also legally prohibited from sharing any of the information it gathers with any other government agency. Census takers face steep penalties, including lengthy imprisonment, for the disclosure of any personal data.
Census takers will visit each household as many as six times, to ensure that they eventually get through to home owners. The first visit will be in person, and if contact is not made, the census takers will leave a call back number in order to conduct the interview via telephone.
The door-to-door campaign will be larger in scope, particularly in the New York City metropolitan area, which posted a lower than average response rate to the mailed census form campaign.
According to the bureau, the street campaign will last until early July.
For more information on the campaign, visit www.2010census.gov
