Board and community launch 2010 Census outreach; supervisors push for SRO access to ensure an accurate count

San Francisco officials and community partners launched a public campaign at City Hall on Jan. 5, 2010 to increase participation in the 2010 U.S. Census, with officials stressing that a complete count affects federal funding and representation.

David Chiu, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, said the city was determined not to repeat the 2000 undercount that officials attributed to large parts of the city being missed. “Ten years ago, San Francisco was undercounted by 100,000 residents,” Chiu said, and the shortfall cost the city roughly $30 million per year, or about $300 million over the decade. Chiu said the board had agreed to triple local funding for outreach efforts and credited the city attorney’s office, the mayor’s civic engagement staff and the Complete Count Committee for coordinating with the U.S. Census Bureau. He urged every community group to promote participation and noted that the bureau had agreed to provide advance letters in multiple languages.

Supervisor Ross Mercarimi (as named in the transcript) and other supervisors underscored outreach to communities that are traditionally hard to count, including recent immigrants and households that speak languages other than English at home. Mercarimi announced he would introduce legislation to require full access for census workers to single‑room occupancy hotels (SROs), describing SROs as a location type with a history of undercounts. The proposed ordinance aims to ensure census enumerators can reach residents of SROs who otherwise may be missed; the introduction was submitted for future consideration rather than voted on at the Jan. 5 session.

Ralph Lee, the Census Bureau regional chief referenced at the event, described the 2010 count as “safe and easy,” explaining the questionnaire has 10 questions and takes about 10 minutes to complete. Annie Chung and Andrea Shorter, co‑chairs of San Francisco’s Complete Count Committee, outlined local outreach plans and asked community organizations to help spread the word, particularly in non‑English communities.

Why it matters: census counts determine federal funding allocations for programs including housing, health care and other services for the next decade. Officials emphasized that undercounted populations — people in poverty, public‑housing residents, tenants of SROs and immigrants — are precisely those who most rely on such services.

Next steps: supervisors said they would move forward with local funding and legislation to improve access for enumerators; the SRO access measure was introduced for consideration at a future meeting and was not acted on Jan. 5.