Advocates urge New York City to fund permanent census outreach to avoid 2030 undercount

Community leaders and census advocates urged New York City Council leaders at a public forum to invest in sustained, neighborhood-level outreach and permanent census infrastructure to avoid a damaging undercount in the 2030 Census.

"The census is not simply a count. It is a declaration of our presence, of our power, and of our right to resources," said Lurie Daniel Favors, executive director of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College. Favors said an undercount reduces both federal funding and political representation and called for statewide coalition organizing to ensure Black New Yorkers are fully counted.

Alcia Encarnacion, chair of the immigration committee, warned against adding a citizenship question to the census and framed that proposal as "not about accuracy. It's about instilling fear." She said fear suppresses responses, which in turn costs communities money and seats in Congress, and urged investments in language access and trusted local partners for block-by-block outreach.

Grace Bonilla of United Way said the financial stakes are large: "Every person missing in the census costs about $3,000 a year for the next decade," she said, and called for a statewide office of data and census and a funded operational backbone to sustain outreach between decennial counts. "People don't respond to systems. They respond to trust," Bonilla said.

Steve Romalewski of the City University of New York's Center for Urban Research summarized Census Bureau data and risks: many census tracts in New York City have self-response rates at or below 70 percent, and some areas fell below 50 percent in recent counts, increasing the need for in-person follow-up. He also noted that nonresponse follow-up is expensive and disruptive; Romalewski said the Census Bureau's 2020 in-person follow-up cost about $1.5 billion nationwide.

Representatives of APA Voice and the Min Kwon Center, including Liz Ouyang, stressed language and cultural barriers facing Asian Pacific American communities, noting that more than 40 Asian languages and dialects are spoken in New York City and that the Census Bureau's 2020 questionnaire and materials did not cover that full range. Ouyang said APA Voice has grown to 25 groups across the state and is partnering with local leaders to train organizers and reach neighborhoods with low response rates.

Speakers tied the outreach case to concrete past harms: panelists referenced an earlier undercount and cited roughly 89 unsubmitted forms in a prior cycle that contributed to the loss of a congressional seat, and they said failure to fund community organizations would again risk resources for schools, hospitals and housing.

Organizers closed by thanking attendees and saying there is "much more to come" in the run-up to 2030, signaling additional planning sessions, trainings and requests for funding. The forum did not produce formal votes or legislative actions; speakers framed their proposals as requests for city and state officials to prioritize funding, language access and permanent census infrastructure.