A team of D.C. government and community leaders are coordinating the city’s outreach strategy for the 2010 Census, the results of which will win or lose the District millions of federal dollars. D.C.’s voluntary survey completion rate was only 60 percent during the 2000 Census, one of the lowest in the country. The population was undercounted by thousands, the District contends, costing the city $30 million or more. “It’s all about having a successful campaign and promotional effort, which is what we’re gearing up for,” said Mafara Hobson, spokeswoman for Mayor Adrian Fenty. The city is heavy on the very demographics considered hardest to count: Immigrants, young black men, the impoverished, the homeless, the unemployed, renters, students, diplomats — even people living alone. “It’s an impossible task but it’s worth every single effort to do,” said Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations. “I could conceivably spend every moment of the next 6 months on this. I’ll give it my all, and hope everybody else does.” Lynch is one of three non-government members of the District’s 2010 Census outreach coordination committee, joining John Hill of the Federal City Council and Bernard Demczuk of George Washington University. The other 11 members all work for the Fenty administration. The committee met Thursday for the first time. Awareness and “daily visibility” will be key for the Census effort, according to documents distributed at the meeting. Every D.C. household must receive at least two contacts prior to April 1, Census Day, with at least four contacts for the hard-to-count groups. The District received $2.1 billion in federal money in fiscal 2007 based on census data, or $3,500 for every D.C. man, woman and child. The Census Bureau estimates the District’s population at about 592,000. Blacks account for 53.4 percent, whites 37.5 percent, Hispanics 8.6 percent and Asian 3.4 percent, according to the 2008 American Community Survey. Roughly 31 percent of all households earn less than $34,999 a year. The District’s local census office has already hired about 350 people ahead of the 2010 tally, but it is not expect to hire counters, or enumerators as they’re known officially, until next year, Hobson said. U.S. households will receive their 10-question Census forms through the mail in March.
