While COVID-19 has New Yorkers finding ways to work remotely, home school, and implementing various precautions to Slow the Spread, one thing remains constant in 2020, and that’s the Census.
You should have already received mailers inviting you to participate. Completing the Census as self-response via mail, phone, or
online
is the simplest way to handle this task. Once you’re done, encourage your friends, neighbors, and family and loved ones to do the same.
Some unexpected living situations resulting from the pandemic have raised questions about how households should count the people who live there. The Census asks residents to count everyone who usually lives and sleeps in the home as of April 1, regardless of age, and even if they are staying somewhere else temporarily.
This does not include college students who may have returned to their parents’ houses amid campus closures. If students typically live in college dorms, the school includes them in their own census response, so those students do not need to respond. If they live off-campus, they should list their address from their college town or city as their physical address.
Getting an accurate Census count will determine – for the next decade – the amount of federal funding New York gets for critical programs. If every person is not counted, New York stands to lose out on millions of dollars of federal funding public transportation infrastructure improvements, food assistance to needy families, and early childhood education for low-income children.
