TheBurg

12 | theburgnews.com | 03.20 K nock, knock. Who's there? Census. Census who? It makes "census" to get an accurate head count. Sorry. Best I could do. It's just our way of saying the decennial enumeration is hot on our heels. Starting this month, homes across the country will begin receiving invitations to complete the 2020 census, with instructions on how to respond. But many localities, including in Dauphin County, are making their own special efforts to encourage voluntary response, before an in-person census taker, beginning in May, does the real "knock-knock" on your door. From city to countryside, partnerships are the key to reaching every resident in Dauphin County, especially in hard-to-reach areas. What's at stake if undercounted communities stay undercounted? About $2,000 in federal funds is lost per year for every person overlooked, according to a George Washington University study. Miss, say, 10,000 people, and that's $20 million diverted from roads, schools, health facilities, housing and food aid in a single year. ere also are fewer heads counted when legislative and congressional lines are drawn, creating a representational imbalance in Harrisburg and Washington. e Census Bureau has baseline population numbers, but forging those baselines into statistical data demands accurate counts, said Angela Gregg, Census Bureau partnership specialist within Dauphin County. "For grant funding, you have to prove that you are servicing that population number in order to back up that the funding will be used in that area," she said. trusteD VoIces e numbers give communities and businesses demographic insights that inform planning for housing, commerce and other needs, said Harrisburg Planning Bureau Director Geoffrey Knight. "Are large households growing? Are single households growing?" he said. "What does that mean for the type of housing we provide? What does that mean for economic development and for our transportation system?" Dauphin County's officially hard-to-count neighborhoods are in parts of Middletown and Harrisburg—Allison Hill and South Allison Hill, plus the blocks of Uptown just above Maclay Street. (Find them at www.censushardtocountmaps2020.us and the www.census.gov Response Outreach Area Mapper, or ROAM.) But a closer look shows other slow spots, including the Hershey area (all those transient medical students) and northern Dauphin County, said Steven B. Deck, executive director of the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission. e Dauphin County commissioners tapped Deck to chair the county's Complete Count Committee, a voluntary Census Bureau initiative meant to reach every pocket of every community. Dauphin County fashioned its committee as a "facilitator," said Deck. count us in It's go time for the 2020 census. bY m. DIAne mccormIcK

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