Despite her previous warnings, Skylar Braithwaite remains optimistic.
Back in August, the graduate student and intern in Morgantown City Manager Paul Brake’s office warned that West Virginia would be in trouble if there wasn’t significant investment at the state level in the upcoming 2020 Census.
That investment has yet to materialize, and according to some of the people heading up census efforts locally, it may already be too late.
Braithwaite is leading census efforts for the city of Morgantown. She helped organize a recent meeting of the local complete count committee, during which it was explained there is still a need for some 2,000 census workers in Monongalia County alone.
“If we don’t get enough people, then when it comes time to go out and do enumeration, or door knocking, there’s not going to be people to do that,” Braithwaite said.
“So when people don’t self-respond, then you send out the door knockers – they’re the ones who really close the gap as far as how many people are actually living here. If we don’t have those people to fill that gap, we’re going to be really short in terms of an accurate count.”
And West Virginia is desperate for an accurate count. The state had the second lowest participation rate in 2010, at 65%. Only Alaska was worse, at 64%. The national average was 74%.
The state currently receives $6.7 billion in federal funding allocation tied to the decennial census. The programs most dependent on those funds include Medicaid, SNAP, highway planning and construction and Medicare Part B.
Governor Jim Justice announced the creation of a state complete count committee in August, but its been left largely to census workers and nonprofits to spread the word.
Based on the latest census estimates, approximately 24% of West Virginia’s current population — 442,040 people — are in hard-to-count areas, or tracts.
In 2020, the Census Bureau will be urging most households to submit their census responses online, but based on 2018 data, 23.4% of West Virginia’s households had either no Internet subscription or dial-up Internet only.
Carol Bush is a partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau based out of the Philadelphia Regional Census Center.
Asked about the lack of support for census efforts coming out of Charleston, Bush said it simply falls off the radar despite the critical role it plays in securing funds for the state.
“I think it’s because it’s only every 10 years. So it’s off the radar, then they try to scramble and pull people together,” Bush said. “We have the same budget now that we had 10 years ago. So essentially, you’ve got half the budget. Instead of three offices, we have one, in Beckley and they’re running around trying to find people to be clerks.”
So Bush, Braithwaite and dozens of other volunteers and nonprofits are taking every opportunity to get the word out, not only about the need for workers, but the importance of filling out the census forms, which will start arriving in mailboxes in mid-March.
You can respond online, over the phone or by mail. If you don’t respond, expect a knock on your door. If you have a P.O box, an invitation to participate will be delivered to your home.
Locally, WVU students are an area of focus.
“College students are counted where they live, where they are the majority of the year, using the roads, the water, all the things we get federal funding for,” Bush said.
“It’s not where you’re registered to vote or whose tax return you’re on. It’s where you lay your head the majority of the year.”
It was also explained that student-heavy areas are some of the tracts most desperately needing workers.
Census work pays $20/hour and could run from February through July if you take part in multiple operations. It was also explained that there are exemptions that allow people to work for the census without losing benefits.
Additional information is available at 2020census.gov.
There will be a local recruiting drive for census workers on Feb. 3. Times and locations include:
- 10 a.m.- 11:30 a.m. — Monongalia County Courthouse, county commission chambers
- Noon- 2 p.m. — WVU Mountainlair
- 6 p.m.- 7:30 p.m. — Morgantown Public Library, Meeting Room A
Additional information is available at 2020census.gov.
