Suffolk lags behind Nassau in Census 2020 questionnaire completions

The U.S. Census Bureau is moving census takers around the region to get responses from residents who have not yet answered the 2020 questionnaire, as the bureau nears its Sept. 30 deadline to complete the count of the nation's population.

Census takers from Queens are being sent into Suffolk County, for example, to help out there, said Jeff Behler, director of the bureau's New York regional office, which covers New York, New Jersey, the New England states, plus Puerto Rico.

"We definitely have moved people from Queens to all over our region, not just to Suffolk County," Behler said." It’s not that Suffolk County was behind, or lagging and not meeting goals. It's just, there’s work there." He added that multiple visits from census takers often are needed to make contact with residents of seasonal homes, like in the Hamptons in Suffolk.

Behler said the count in Queens was 80% complete, while in Suffolk, the count was "a little over 60% complete," and 77% complete in Nassau County.

Nationally, the bureau reported this week that 88% of the nation's households have been counted, which includes people who have responded on their own, plus those who were enumerated by census takers going door to door. Using that metric, Behler said 87.3% of households in New York State have been counted.

"When we get to this point in the operation … what happens is we get employees that don’t have any work assigned," Behler said. The bureau asks "if they’d like to travel to other places. It could be next door, a different county, or a different state," he added, noting there were more than 2,200 census takers deployed across Long Island. 

Politicians and community activists are concerned about the low self-response rates in some areas on the Island, and are working to boost census participation.

Earlier this week, Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City) led a delegation of local politicians and advocates in Roosevelt, urging residents who haven't filled out the census — which can be done online, by phone or by mailing in the questionnaire — to do so. Rice was particularly concerned about low self-response rates in minority communities.

"The bottom line is this," Rice said Tuesday. "The more people we count, the more funding we get for our community." 

Census population data affects the distribution of anywhere from an estimated $675 billion to $1.5 trillion annually to states and municipalities for a wide range of programs. It also affects congressional apportionment.

Complete Count Committees on the East End have announced a "Census 2020 Caravan" of cars on Sept. 17 to converge for a rally in Riverhead on the importance of completing the census.

"The East End has one of the lowest census response rates in New York State," Martha Maffei, executive director of Patchogue-based nonprofit SEPA Mujer, one of several organizations working to increase census awareness, particularly in immigrant communities, said in a statement.

Behler said he was "confident" the agency could complete its work by Sept. 30, which is a month earlier than the extension the bureau originally had sought because of delays due to the coronavirus pandemic. "We have the resources to do so … We just need to continue to knock on those doors," he said. 

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie