LI activists worry over Census response rate

Some Long Island activists involved in census outreach in "hard to count" communities, those with large numbers of minorities and immigrants, said Wednesday they are worried about what they saw as a lower than expected mail response rate so far.

A sampling of four Long Island communities showed a "mail participation rate" of roughly 33 percent, far below yesterday's national rate of 52 percent. The rate for Nassau and Suffolk counties was close behind at 51 percent each.

"It's very disappointing," Lisa Tyson, director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition, said of Wyandanch's rate, which ranged from 25 percent to 32 percent. Volunteers have been going door-to door there talking about the importance of the census. "We've extended our outreach" through the end of April, as a result.

The rate ranged from 28 percent to 36 percent in Hempstead Village census tracts; 31 percent to 35 percent in Uniondale; and 31 percent to 45 percent in Brentwood, for example.

"We've seen alarming low rates of responses from certain communities in our district," said Ibrahim Khan, spokesman for state Sen. Brian X. Foley (D-Islip), who plans a census awareness program 2 p.m. Thursday at the Brentwood Public Library.

Despite concerns about Long Island's rates, a bureau spokeswoman said those were better than some other hard-to-count communities nationwide, where the rates ranged from 20 percent to 25 percent.

The Census Bureau urged people to mail in their completed census forms by Thursday, Census Day, but there's still time to mail them in after Thursday. The bureau plans to send out replacements to areas where mail back rates are traditionally low.

Final mail participation rates won't be calculated until April 23. Then the bureau will send out census workers to households that didn't mail back the form starting in May.

The public can track the rates at: http://2010.census.gov/ 2010census/take10map.

The census population count drives about $400 billion annually in federal funding to states and local governments. And undercount could reduce how much aid Long Island gets.

Rahsmia Zatar, the Uniondale Community Council's census project coordinator, said the council plans to send out student volunteers Thursday to stand in front of the Uniondale Public Library wearing T-shirts and holding signs promoting the census.

While Zatar said the arrival of the census forms seems to have "engaged" the community, there's a downside. "The biggest negative message we are getting from a lot of residents is that they know the landlords are getting the forms and not including everyone who lives in the house," she said. She said the council is directing residents to Be Counted sites to obtain a census form.

To find one in your area, go to: http://2010.census.gov/ 2010census and click on Be Counted sites in the "Need Help with Your Form?" box.