Saturday, May 16, 2020

Coronavirus in rural America (Part XXXXVIII): Census work resumes in rural areas of 11 states

That's what NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reported today.   Here's the salient part to "rural":
The bureau also announced on Friday that it's sending out workers as early as next week to drop off questionnaires in more stateside rural communities, including in parts of Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island and Wyoming.

The two-month suspension of census field operations in these areas has led to low self-response rates, raising concerns about undercounts that could have devastating long-term implications on the share of the estimated $1.5 trillion a year in federal funding communities receive based in part on their population counts from the once-a-decade census.
And there is this about Native Communities in particular: 
While census work returns to Puerto Rico and a growing list of rural areas in the states, some of the country's most vulnerable populations continue to face uncertainty about how they will be included in the census. As of Friday, the bureau has not released new plans for counting people experiencing homelessness, or for leaving forms outside of homes in some American Indian tribal territories. The bureau has said it suspended those operations to protect the health and safety of its workers and the public.
The story quotes a Census Bureau statement:
We made the move knowing we could still achieve a complete and accurate count — and are working closely with tribal leaders to determine the right time to resume this important operation. 

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