Albany-Dougherty Census committee scrambling as count time shortened

ALBANY — With nationwide response to the U.S. Census already hampered by COVID-19, a decision to eliminate a month of the decennial population count could have a huge impact on Albany.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s decision, announced on Monday, to end the data collection at the end of September instead of Oct. 31 could lead to missing a large number of people.

The impact will be most pronounced for low-income residents and minorities, including Latinos, Paul Forgey, director of Planning and Development Services for the city of Albany and Dougherty County, said.

Forgey, who heads up the Albany-Dougherty County Complete Count Committee for the Census, gave an update on Tuesday to the Albany City Commission.

As of Sunday, only 31.7% of residents in one east Albany census tract had returned forms either by mail or online, according to Census Bureau statistics. For the 2010 Census, a little more than 59% of residents in that area participated.

Cutting a month of response time means less time for door-to-door canvassers to visit households that have not responded.

“Those people are the most difficult to count,” Forgey said of the groups he identified. “Moving the date (ahead) a month will lead to these people being undercounted.”

Most of the census tracts in Albany have a participation rate so far of more than 50%, according to the census website, but one in area code 31702 is at 36.8%.

Overall, Dougherty County’s self-response stood at 56.7% at the beginning of the week, two percentage points behind the state. For Albany, the number was 55.5%.

“(We’re) ahead of other cities of about our size — Valdosta, Columbus and Macon — and also Thomasville and the region,” Forgey said. “We don’t want to compare ourselves to other cities. We want 100 percent.”

For the county as a whole, there has been a 0.5% increase over the last two weeks, which doesn’t sound like a lot but represents 1,800 households, Forgey said. For Albany, there has been a 0.4% increase of responses over that two-week period.

Each person not counted could represent the loss of $20,000 to $30,000 in federal grant funds for the community over the next 10 years, he said. Voting districts also are drawn based on the count.

“Businesses make their decisions about moving to a particular location based on census numbers,” Forgey said.

Commissioner Jon Howard asked Forgey what could be done to boost those numbers, especially when the novel coronavirus has upended the lives of many residents.

“It appears, because of the coronavirus, getting my constituents to recognize the importance of doing it is like pulling a wisdom tooth,” said Howard, whose Ward I includes the census tract where participation was at 31.7 percent. “We just need an all-out blitz.”

One strategy that has proved successful in other places is establishing a phone bank were individuals are enlisted to call 10 friends and ask them to participate in the census and call 10 other people, Forgey said.

The group also plans to use billboards and television advertisements to drive participation in the closing days of the count.

File Photo: Alan Mauldin
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