Census 2020: KC's vulnerable communities in the eye of an under-count storm

An image from the U.S. Census map tracking response rates to the Census shows low participation in orange and higher participation in blue. For more detail, go to kclinc.org/2020census.

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Is it the orange eye of deepening blue storm?

Or is it what U.S. Census campaigner Jenny Garmon of the Kansas City Public Library sees in the latest maps charting Census participation:

“We’re in a desert,” Garmon said, eyeing the sand-colored shades of Census tracts in the middle of the latest map of Kansas City participation in the U.S. Census. Those are tracts that remain below 50% — and even less than 30% in some tracts — in the number of households that have filled out the 2020 count.

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kclinc.org/2020census

“I really see a desert.”

Cooler shades of blue marking much of the Kansas City area show that most areas on both sides of the state line are well over 50%, but hard-to-count areas of vulnerable communities in east Kansas City are raising alarms.

Billions of federal dollars are at stake, as a complete Census count will better direct allotted funds into communities needing federal support for education and social services, along with other federally backed programs for the next 10 to 12 years.

The neighborhoods that would benefit the most from federal resources are the ones at most risk of being under-counted. And the entire state is impacted as well, including risking being under-counted when new Congressional districts are allotted based on state population.

A complete-count campaign, sent stumbling by the COVID-19 pandemic, is poised now to apply booster rockets.

LINC has created a special page at kclinc.org/2020census to track the progress of the effort, led by the Count Me In KC regional campaign that has mobilized with partners such as the Kansas City Public Library.

“I’m ready to get back out there,” said Garmon, a legal and government information specialist heading the library’s Census outreach team. “I'm ready to see what’s next.”

Before mid-March, the library had a team with laptops and tablets through a grant from Greater Kansas City Community Foundation that had plans to join community events and gatherings to get heads of households filling out their Census online on the spot.

The hands-on community outreach effort was a key boost to the nationwide U.S. Census campaign and the local Count Me In KC coalition that have been trying to get the message out, especially in the harder-to-count neighborhoods.

Congress agreed to give the Census process an extension. Because of the pandemic, the schedule has been pushed back four months, giving the campaign more time through the summer and into the fall to get more households counted. The deadline for self-response has been extended to Oct. 31.

The work of the Census takers — the Census Bureau is still hiring — will now extend through the end of the year to try and count households and individuals that did not fill out the form. The final count that is to be delivered to the President and Congress, originally due Dec. 31, will be due April 30, 2021.

There is time, Garmon said, to reenergize the campaign.

“We can’t focus on what was lost,” she said. “We must focus on what we can gain. We’re not where we need to be,” she said, noting the maps. “The graphs showing self-reporting has been flat-lining . . . We need to remind people of the urgency and importance of a complete count.”

For instance, an unexpected consequence of the prior Census hit when federal COVID-19 relief dollars were distributed to cities of 500,000 population or more. Kansas City fell just short of the threshold, meaning the city couldn’t apply for direct funds, but has had to negotiate shares distributed to Jackson County.