Ko Lyn Cheang photo
Susan Bysiewiecz encourages people to fill out the census.
Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewiecz visited the food trucks at Long Wharf Drive to encourage “hard-to-count” populations to take the once-in-a-decade census in her latest effort to boost Connecticut’s census response rate.
As of Thursday, 66.5 percent of Connecticut residents have responded to the census. 50.3 percent of New Haveners had responded, according to Bysiewiecz. She said New Haven’s response rate is “one of the higher figures” and exceeds that of Bridgeport and Hartford.
“It is because [New Haven] has a very active complete count committee,” said Bysiewiecz. New Haven got an early start to ensuring the city counts every resident, kicking off the campaign as early as January 2019. She credited the large number of community events organized by the Complete Count Committee as a key reason for the increasing census response rate.
Bysiewiecz has made a number of these in-person efforts to encourage hard-to-count populations to fill out the Census. Recently, she participated in two car caravan visits to the Fair Haven area, a caravan in the Hill and Dwight neighbourhoods, and a visit to knock on doors of Amity residents.
22 percent of Connecticut’s population lives in hard-to-count areas, which are pockets that the Census Bureau has defined as having had a low census-tracked response rate. They tend to be urban areas with large transient populations, multi-family housing, and communities of color.
Vianey Cortes (left) fills out the census.
On Friday afternoon, Bysiewiecz approached multiple people who were lining up for or working at the food trucks to ask if they have filled out the census. Those who had not were directed to fill it out on the spot at mobile booths, where trained census workers with tablets in hand explained what the census was and assisted them in completing the census.
She thanked Vianey Cortes, who works at El Rinconcito food truck, for filling out the form. She approached Tammi Jordan and Ashley Jordan with census 2020 water bottles. The mother-daughter duo said they had already completed the forms.
Susan Bysiewiecz with Tammi Jordan and Ashley Jordan.
New Haven Complete Count Committee member Addie Kimbrough said she has observed that Bysiewiecz is dedicated to the New Haven area and has been working hard to encourage residents to complete the census.
“This is her baby. She is really into making the census count and getting the word out,” said Kimbrough.
One person approached by census worker Rosa Ibarra asked whether undocumented individuals could complete the form. Ibarra responded that the census is completely confidential — the only identifying information that person needs to give is a name and an address — and explained the importance of filling it out.
“I even said, if the bridge breaks down, they will now know they need to save the 50,000 people who live here,” said Ibarra, gesturing to the Q Bridge, which spans the Quinnipiac River mouth, in the distance. She told people that census counts affect New Haven’s share of federal funds for services ranging from schools and after-school programming for their children, to neighborhood parks.
The 2020 Census does not include a citizenship question, after efforts by the Trump Administration to include one were thwarted by a Supreme Court ruling.
Census worker Rosa Ibarra (right).
“There is a federal law that protects any information you give from going to any other federal agency,” Bysiewiecz told one woman who had not filled out the census because she was concerned about her privacy. With some persuasion from the lieutenant governor, the woman completed the census on the spot without issue.