The first visible part of the 2010 U.S. Census will begin Monday on the North Olympic Peninsula as census workers walk house-to-house verifying addresses.
A total of 58 census workers — 40 in Clallam County and 18 in Jefferson County — will work to verify at least 97,123 addresses through June 26, said Deni Luna, U.S. Census spokeswoman.
About 4,000 census workers will be taking part in the canvassing statewide.
Some residents could get a knock on their door from the census workers to verify an address, but workers are not allowed to ask personal questions.
“They really are not going to ask any questions except for if any address is unclear,” Luna said.
“Most people probably won’t get a knock on the door.”
All census workers will carry badges identifying themselves, she said.
Questionnaire next year
The purpose of the address canvassing is to ensure that every home receives a census questionnaire next year that will ask the residents to list how many people live there, among other questions, in order to verify an area’s population.
Those Census figures are used to reappropriate seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and distribute more than $300 billion in federal money.
“Most people don’t realize it has ramifications if they don’t get counted,” Luna said.
“If they miss children, they could lose money to Head Start programs . . . it could really be tens of thousands of dollars for that 10-year census.”
Luna said people who don’t submit their census questionnaires will be contacted by the U.S. Census Bureau next spring.
About 67 percent of residents mail in the questionnaires, she said.
The deadline for the 2010 Census is April 1, and 85 percent of the bureau’s work won’t begin until next year, she said.
Luna said the economic recession will provide additional challenges with the upcoming census.
The problem is, as people lose their jobs and homes, they are more likely to move in with friends and families — or worse, have no place to stay.
“That is one of the challenges with the economy,” she said, “that we anticipate there will be a lot of foreclosures, people living with friends and relatives, and we do want everyone counted.
“There is also a changed political climate,” she added.
“There are more people with a heightened sense of privacy.”
To increase accuracy, the census workers for the first time are using hand-held computers equipped with global positioning systems, or GPS.
“Accuracy is paramount,” Luna said.
“[GPS] is vastly superior over the paper maps. It enables them to zero in on exact locations.
“Say, if a street isn’t marked, the information can be updated easily.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
