March 19, 2019. This article covers the rally that took place at New York City Hall where Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Grace Meng, Adriano Espaillat and Gregory Meeks spoke about their fear that New York will experience an undercount in the 2020 census and lose federal funds. The author goes on to highlight that the Congress members urged the governor to include $40 million, an estimate calculated by FPI, in the executive budget to help achieve an accurate count. The congress members noted that allocating the funds to community based organizations would help with an accurate count because individuals trust these workers and many New Yorkers don’t know how to complete the forms, live in unconventional dwellings, or are undocumented and are afraid to fill out a government form.

The census, to be conducted next in 2020, is used to determine how much the federal government gives individual states for the following decade.

The members of Congress, speaking at City Hall, said they’re worried that the state could be undercounted — and thus underfunded — because New Yorkers don’t know to complete the forms, live in unconventional dwellings, or are not in the country legally and are afraid to fill out a census form.

The $40 million would be used to hire workers from community organizations to go door to door in neighborhoods statewide, Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Grace Meng, Adriano Espaillat and Gregory Meeks said at a rally Tuesday morning.

The proposal for $40 million came originally from the labor-backed Fiscal Policy Institute, which released a report in October on the idea, aiming to reach “hard to count” people and others.

According to the report, 24 percent of households in Suffolk County didn’t respond to the census by mail; in Nassau County, that number is 23 percent.  The state’s average number 24 percent, the report said.

Here is the link to Newsday.