LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The 2020 Census opens in four weeks, and with time winding down, the City of Little Rock is unveiling its strategy to make sure that even the forgotten are counted.
“This is the priority for 2020,” said Charles Blake, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr.’s chief of staff.
Blake led a presentation to the Little Rock Board of Directors about the city’s plan to ensure a complete count for the upcoming Census. The overall theme mirrored the old adage, “it takes money to make money.”
Blake said if Little Rock residents are undercounted by one percent, it would cost the city $75 million per year in missed federal funds. “In 2000, estimated loss in funding on just eight federal programs was over $17 million,” he said.
To aid in the spread of its message, the city will partner with Central Arkansas Water, churches, apartment complexes, and the Little Rock School District to tell people about the Census.
“We’re gonna use the district’s platforms, such as text messaging and phone calls, which I get three to four times a day,” Blake said. He mentioned that pamphlets would be sent home with students, some schools would open their computer labs to allow people to fill out the census, and each school would host an informational meeting for parents.
“We’re gonna be targeting messaging to parents of children under five,” he stated. Those are our most hard to count.”
This will be the first year in which people will be able to complete the Census form online. Maricella Garcia, Little Rock’s multicultural liaison, said many people would enjoy the convenience, but it would create a new set of problems, as well. “We also create a new population of hard to count, which is anybody that doesn’t have access or doesn’t know how to do these things,” she said. “When we look at low-income persons, 20 percent of Pulaski County did not have access to internet at all.”
Every home will get a hard copy of the Census form through the mail, which will come in both English and Spanish. While those cover the vast majority of Arkansans, a 2018 study of new Little Rock residents showed that more than half of the non-English-speakers used a different language. “We also had a population of Chinese that was growing, we had a population of Koreans, Filipinos, and also Indians,” Garcia stated.
To help people who do not speak English or Spanish, the city will post staff members at the Southwest Community Center and West Central Community Center to assist people in responding in their native languages. They will be available after March 16.
Lamor Williams, the city’s communications and marketing manager, described the city’s marketing push, which includes graphics and pamphlets in English and Spanish. He said that, as soon as the city receives a copy of the 2020 Census questionnaire, it will post pictures to social media so people know what to look for.
The group did not say how much money the city plans to spend, but Blake said the largest expense will be canvassers. Garcia explained which census tracts and zip codes had low response rates in years past and said canvassers would go door to door in those neighborhoods to educate residents about the Census and its value. Blake spoke into the camera recording the meeting for the city to address residents directly.
“We’re gonna need all citizens to play a role,” he said. “It’s gonna be citizens plus a multiplier of 10. We need the mamas, we need the cousins, we need everybody to make sure that they are counted.”
Mayor Scott announced Monday the volunteer members of the Little Rock Complete Counts Committee, which will engage community groups to encourage participation.
March 12 is the first day participants will be able to respond to the census by phone or website, and questionnaires will be mailed that day. April 1 is National Census Day and the date of record for all information provided. Enumerators will count the homeless population March 30 through April 1, then count transitory locations such as RV parks and motels between April 9 and May 4.
In-person efforts will begin May 13 for homes that have not responded by that point, and July 31 is the final day to report.