Census Day passes with some households still waiting for questionnaires

MISSION — Howard Sutton wasn’t counted in 2000.

Sutton and his wife, Christine, who spent that winter in the Rio Grande Valley, never received their questionnaire for the nation’s 2000 census because they were in an RV headed on a trip to the Canadian border at the time.

Now settled as year-round residents in Mission, Sutton anxiously waited the past few weeks for his form to arrive. With his mailbox still empty, he worries he won’t be counted again.

“It’s not like we’re lost. We pay taxes,” he said. “You kind of think, ‘Why don’t they know we’re here?’”

Conducted once every decade and mandated by the U.S. Constitution, census counts help determine how more than $400 billion a year in federal funding is spent on infrastructure and government services. They also are used for the decennial re-apportioning of the U.S. House — which can result in states gaining or losing seats in that chamber — and are similarly used for divvying up representation in state legislatures.

Sutton and his neighbors in the Hidden Valley Ranch subdivision still hadn’t received their 2010 census forms by Thursday, the national awareness day when all residents are asked to fill out and mail in their census questionnaires. But other permanent residents, Winter Texans and colonia advocates reported that they hadn’t received the forms, either.

Although National Census Day passed Thursday, where it was celebrated in Hidalgo County with a regional pep rally, U.S. Census Bureau officials said millions of forms are still on their way to households across the country.

A bureau spokesman said households who did not receive the form are asked to wait until April 12 to allow sufficient time for the questionnaire to be delivered to their address. If households do not receive the form by April 12, they can call a toll-free help line for assistance. Questionnaires are also available at public locations, such as city halls and libraries.

But Hidalgo County Judge Rene Ramirez, who also hasn’t received his census form at his rural residence, said the Census Bureau’s decision not to mail questionnaires to colonias and many Winter Texan parks would hamper a complete count in Hidalgo County.

About 85 percent of households across the United States will receive their questionnaires by mail, said Jerome Garza, an area manager with the Dallas Regional Census Center. Census workers dubbed “enumerators” will be sent to households who don’t mail back the form to gather the requested information.

But about 15 percent of residences — such as seasonally vacant housing units and homes on some American Indian reservations and in colonias — will not receive a form by mail. Those areas, where most housing units don’t have traditional mailing addresses with a house number and street name, fall under the Census Bureau’s “update/enumerate” plan, in which census workers are sent into the field to collect their data.

Failing at least to try to mail the census forms to those residences is detrimental to Hidalgo County, which has more colonias than anywhere else in the state, Ramirez said. And it puts into question whether the method used to count all Hidalgo County residents can ever be accurate.

“I feel as if the system is designed for us to fail,” Ramirez said. “The mail is good enough for the (U.S. Internal Revenue Service). Why can’t it be good enough for the census?”

Ramirez sent a letter to Census Bureau Director Robert Groves on Thursday asking him to mail forms to colonia residents in addition to conducting the door-to-door counts. Community leaders tailored their public outreach message about the census to advise residents to expect a form in the mail, Ramirez said. By not mailing the forms to all households, tens of thousands of Hidalgo County residents may go uncounted.

Colonias, RV parks, college dormitories, homeless populations and other groups receive special attention from the Census Bureau because they are hard to count, bureau spokesman Efren Salinas said. Census enumerators are scheduled to go to those areas in upcoming weeks to meet with residents individually.

Lyle DeYoung is worried he won’t be there for the visit.

DeYoung — and others in Pharr’s Tropic Star RV Park — hadn’t received his census forms by Thursday, a week before he’s scheduled to head to his native Ohio.

DeYoung is registered to vote in Texas and considers Pharr his permanent residence, spending most of the year here. He wants the census to reflect that.

“I know we’re on the rolls somewhere,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re counted.”

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.

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What to do you if you have not received a census form:

Wait until April 12 to allow time for it to arrive. Millions of census forms are on their way to households across the country.

If you have not received your form by April 12, you may call a toll-free U.S. Census Bureau help line:

>> English: (866) 872-6868

>> Spanish: (866) 935-2010

You can also complete a “Be Counted” questionnaire if you have not received your form. The questionnaires — similar to the mailed forms but without an address — are available at public locations such as libraries and city halls through April 19. A full list of the locations is posted at www.2010Census.gov.