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Lots of stuff is suddenly difficult, including getting Detroiters to be counted in the national census.
Door-to-door canvassing is out until who knows when, for an obvious reason. Participating online works fine, but only for households with a device and internet service. Plus, residents can't use library or community center computers now.
About 37 percent of Detroiters filed by this month's target. (Photo: U.S. Census Bureau)
Mail is another option, though only response codes -- not questionnaires -- were sent automatically to every address. Codes can be used to request a form by phone, which depends on a commitment to follow through at a stressful time when schools, work, transportation and shopping have been disrupted.
Net result: Only about 37 percent of Detroiters filed a census form by April 1, the target date for self-reporting.
"Detroit is currently below Michigan’s average response rate, which is nearly 52 percent, and it lags behind Southeast Michigan" overall, WDET posts.
The U.S. state average is a 45-percent response rate. Huntington Woods, a small city in Southeast Michigan, has a 78-percent response rate, making it fifth in the nation. ...
In 2010, the last Census count, nearly two-thirds of Michiganders and more than half of Detroiters responded in the end.
Producer-reporter Eli Newman of the public radio station talks with Vicky Kovari, director of Mayor Mike Duggan's push for participation.
"We had almost 90 events planned for March and April and into May, all of those are cancelled” due to Covid-19, said Kavari.
Instead, the city is changing tactics by paying more for ads on cable and social media and recruiting volunteers to call their peers to urge them to fill out the Census.
At its Census information page, the city tells why "an accurate count of the population of Detroit is critical:"
The city’s population number determines how many lawmakers the city gets in Lansing and Washington, D.C., and how much federal funding the city receives for programs that serve Detroiters every day, from nutrition and housing assistance to roads and schools.
