At noon on Wednesday, Oct. 14, NYC Census 2020 and partners hosted an emergency virtual press conference to raise awareness about the shortened timeline for the completion of the census which now ends Oct. 15, and to mobilize the community in a final sprint to respond and encourage their neighbors, friends, and family to do so also.

 

On Friday, Sept. 24, U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh had ordered the Census Bureau to keep conducting the census count until Oct. 31 but a subsequent Supreme Court ruling allowed the Trump administration to end the 2020 Census on Oct. 15. If NYC experiences an undercount, the City can potentially lose billions for COVID-19 relief and up to two seats in Congress and the electoral college, which decides the presidency.

 

The NYC Census 2020 team said that the press conference was also a direct response to “the Supreme Court’s shameful decision to allow President Trump to cut the 2020 Census count by two weeks, a move designed to depress responses among Black, Brown, and immigrant New Yorkers and rob New York City of billions for critical programs, as well as congressional representation and seats in the Electoral College for the next 10 years.”

Only 41 hours left til end of #2020Census and we just wrapped our emergency press conference. Heading into @NYCCouncil hearing now. Tune in live at: https://t.co/WvBqUGEOjj #GetCountedNYC ⁦@NationalAction⁩ ⁦@thenyic⁩ ⁦@unitedwaynyc⁩ ⁦@MaketheRoadNY⁩ pic.twitter.com/yEELGFsUzB

— Julie Menin (@JulieMenin) October 14, 2020

 

Julie Menin, Head of the NYC Census 2020 team, tweeted a status update following the emergency press conference.

 

As of October 13, New York City had a self-response rate to the census of 61.4 percent. The outreach efforts to date by NYC Census 2020 and its partners have resulted in important progress being made for historically undercounted communities across the city, including:

 

• A near matching of the 2010 initial return rate of 61.9%, despite COVID-19 outreach barriers
• A closing self-response rate gap when compared to the nation (from approximately 14 percentage points in 2010 to approximately 5 percentage points in 2020)
• Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island all ahead of their 2010 initial return rates
• Significant improvements in self-response rates in Black communities across the city
• NYC beat the U.S. Census Bureau’s pre-COVID estimate of 58% self-response by 3.4 percentage points
• NYC’s self-response rate is ahead of Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Baltimore, New Orleans, Detroit, and many others

Key Takeaways

 

• New York City is facing a census emergency: the 2020 Census has been curtailed by two weeks
• Only two days are left to respond; all communities must be mobilized to respond now.
• There are no questions about citizenship or immigration on the census, and all answers are completely confidential and cannot be shared with anyone – not immigration or tax authorities, and not with any law enforcement authorities or landlords.

 

The census does not ask about immigration, citizenship, criminal history, or income. By law, all census responses are completely confidential and cannot be shared with anyone, including any immigration authorities, tax authorities, any law enforcement authorities, or even landlords.

 

The penalties for breaking this law are up to five years in prison, and $250,000 in fines. This law has not been broken since it was passed in 1953.