With the 2010 census approaching, major U.S. cities whose residents are at high risk of being missed are struggling with a shortage of money and workers to prepare for an accurate count. A study released Monday by the Pew Charitable Trusts found several cities with substantially fewer resources than it had in 2000. City officials also voiced concern about a possible inaccurate count next year, citing difficulties in finding displaced residents due to home foreclosures and nervous immigrants wary of filling out government forms. “Nobody's expecting a good census in 2010,” Joseph Salvo, New York City's population division chief, told the Associated Press. “I'm not optimistic. Since the last census we had [the September 11 attacks], privacy issues, trust of government issues. There's been no public declaration that we're going to suspend immigration raids like in 2000.” Pew's review of preparation efforts in 11 major cities, which had undercounts of residents in 2000 of up to 1.5 percent, found only five cities had committed public funds to census programs—Los Angeles, New York City, Houston, Phoenix, and Baltimore. Even when cities had allocated funds, most were at sharply lower levels compared to 2000 because of the recession that has tightened state budgets. To increase participation, the Census Bureau is mounting a $300 million national media campaign and partnering with more than 80,000 groups to help publicize that filling out the 10-question census form is safe and easy. In 2000, the bureau noted for the first time an overcount of 1.3 million people, due mostly to duplicate counts of rich people with multiple houses. About 4.5 million people—mostly poor—were missed. The stakes are high for every census because the population figures are sued to apportion House of Representatives seats, redraw congressional districts, and distribute more than $400 billion in government funds for schools, roads, hospitals, and other programs.
