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Daily Record infographic by Colton Ashabranner

11 days left to respond to this year's U.S. Census

Sunday, September 20, 2020

With only 11 days left to get counted, only 59.9% of Hays County has responded to the U.S. Census compared to 61% statewide and 66% nationwide.

The highest response, a little over 90%, has been by households in Mountain City and the lowest response has been in San Marcos at 47.2%. The final response rate for Hays County in 2010 was 67.7% and 62.5% for San Marcos.

“As you may have heard before, billions of dollars in federal funding are waiting to be distributed based on the Census counts,” said Anita Collins, executive assistant in County Judge Ruben Becerra's office. “It’s like the Census is asking ‘Who wants money for schools?’ and the communities that will get that assistance are the ones who are counted.”

The census results influence decisions on highway construction, grants for buses, grants for teachers, programs to prepare for wildfires and floods, programs to prevent child abuse and programs to provide housing assistance for older adults, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“Filling out the Census is easy, less than eight minutes to answer nine questions and you only have to do this once every 10 years,” said Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra. “Your information is private and secure and will not be released to any other government entity. When you complete the Census it benefits you and your community.”

Hays County is working with local radio stations and the U.S. Census Bureau to secure different locations in the census tracts with the lowest response rates like grocery stores and health clinics where representatives can help residents complete the census on site.

Additionally, the United Way of Greater Austin will be sending reminders to over 10,000 addresses in the hard-to-count tracts in Hays County. The hope is that they will respond online or by phone so that an enumerator does not need to go to their residence.

To promote the census through children of hard-to-count families, the Nakum to be counted Census 2020 youth writing project is still in full swing, organized by the Complete Count subcommittee, the Indigenous Cultures Institute. They ask school age children to submit an essay about who they are, what neighborhood they live in and why it’s important to be counted in this year's Census. All school districts are encouraged to participate.

They are accepting submissions until Sept. 30 at https://indigenouscultures.org/nakumcensus/ Each participant gets a prize and is entered in a drawing for a tablet. The census can be com

The census can be completed at 2020census.gov or by calling 844-330-2020 (English) or 844-468-2020 (Spanish)

sgates @sanmarcosrecord.com

Twitter: @StephJGates

San Marcos Record

(512) 392-2458
P.O. Box 1109, San Marcos, TX 78666